Today was supposed to be the big start to a round of budget cuts that got the state moving in the right direction towards a budget in the black, or at least closer to it. Instead, partisan bickering, lobbyists and even activists outside made things go from tenuous to outright dysfunctional. In the end, the important few days Paterson swore were more important than anything, went completely down the drain.
From The Daily Politics:
Gov. David Paterson just called a halt to the squabbling at the leaders meeting and declared this non-session special session officially dead.
"I think it is clear that this special session on Nov. 18 will not yield the result that we want today...What I think we will do at this point is we will end this special session of the leaders meeting."Paterson said he'll wait until he submits his 2009-2010 budget on Dec. 16 (about a month before he is constitutionally mandated to do so) to reconvene this discussion, adding: "I would like to, in terms of the way that we assess the budget, remain dedicated to closing this year's budget within this year."
Basically nothing gets done until the beginning of next year. There'll be plenty of time for the legislature to figure something out by the beginning of the next fiscal year, but you can probably throw away the hope that anything gets done to try and hold the ship steady for the rest of FY 2008-9.
Perhaps by then we'll have our majorities in both houses in order, and we might be able to make some progress. Of course, that could just as wishful as thinking about a balanced budget that doesn't break the back of the middle and working class.
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