Senate

The Governor has announced a projected $2.1 billion hole in the current fiscal year and is expected to call the legislature back to Albany later this month to close the gap. Assembly Speaker Silver, who, in light of the Governors low polling numbers and the tenuous leadership situation in the Senate is seen as calling the political shots in Albany, agrees with the Governor’s estimates and said he and the Assembly majority wants to be proactive on state budget deficits.  read more »

At 1:00 p.m. today, the Senate returns to regular session for the second time since Senator Espada flipped back to the Democrats and ended the 5 weeklong leadership stalemate.

The session is noteworthy for a few reasons. First, anything done today will need bi-partisan support since one Democratic Senator, Dan Squadron, is on his honeymoon and will not be in the chamber. Given the hard feelings engendered by the coup, cooperation may not come easy.  read more »

Yesterday in the Senate was as bizarre as bizarre could be. The Buffalo News has a good summary of the craziness that was the Senate Chamber. I was in the gallery and can vouch for the confusion and chaos that existed on the floor.

Bottom line is that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans were clearly in charge and bills that were passed may not have been so done legally.  read more »