Democrats Propose Budget Reforms

The Democrat state senate proposed changes to the budget today in Albany. The changes are not actually to this year's budget. The proposal is so that the Senate can avoid the issues that they are having with this year's budget.

The problem with the budget this year is that the state can not find money to stay out of debt, something its not allowed to do. The budget was supposed to be passed by April 1, but it wasn't.

Almost a week after the budget was supposed to be passed, everyone was working non-stop. It was nearly impossible to talk to anyone in the state senate or the assembly, I tried to call several assemblymen and both Central New York state senators. Even though no one said it directly to me, it seemed like they all thought I was so naive for even thinking I could get an interview on such a busy day; everyone was in meetings all day talking about the budget.

But Senate Democrat Spokesman Travis Proulx finally returned my call a few hours after I had started calling people in State government. He said that the big reforms proposed by the Senate majority is pushing back the deadline to pass the budget.

He said New York is the only state who passes its budget before collecting taxes. He said only four states have a deadline as early as June 1st, but New York would do it to accommodate the schools in the state.

"Pushing it back to June 1st allows the schools to still vote on their budget." Proulx said. "They normally vote in May, but they could push it back to June after we vote, and still vote during the school year."

Proulx blamed the problems on the budget on the Republicans. He says Democrats were kept in the dark for over four decades; they only had the majority in the senate for nine months during that time.