Gov. Andrew Cuomo and top state lawmakers appeared to come to an agreement on much of the state budget late Friday, but a bill laying out more than $20 billion in education spending wasn’t introduced before a key midnight deadline.
Both the Senate and Assembly printed eight bills just before 11:59 p.m. Friday that would implement most of the state budget. Since they made it in before midnight, it means they will be eligible for a vote Monday—the deadline for having a spending plan in place.
Legislation for school spending, however, still hadn’t been introduced as of 1:30 a.m. Saturday, bringing into question whether Cuomo would be willing to waive a mandatory three-day aging period in order to salvage what could be the state’s fourth consecutive on-time budget.
Cuomo met separately with Senate leaders and legislative staffers throughout the day Friday, but a full budget agreement—which had been widely expected—remained elusive. A final spending plan is expected to total around $138 billion for the 2014-15 fiscal year, which begins Tuesday.
What's holding the education spending bill up?
Are they arguing over the two-tiered pre-K reimbursement?
Are they arguing over how much money is going to spent on pre-K?
Does Eva Moskowitz want more money from the state for rent and per pupil spending?
Is Eva pissed that charters are now subject to state and local auditing?
Who knows.
All we do know is, the education spending part of the budget is threatening to derail the on-time budget overall.
We'll see what happens - you know Cuomo is desperate to get another on-time budget so he can say every budget has been on time since he was elected governor.
My guess is, he'll push hard and heavy to get what he wants, then waive the "aging" process for the bill by issuing a "message of necessity" so that he can claim "victory" again.
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