By Mark Scott
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wbfo/local-wbfo-895025.mp3
Albany, NY – State Senate Democrats unveiled their plan Wednesday for reforming the state's budget process.
The plan advanced by Senate Democrats would move the start of the state's fiscal year from April 1st to June 1st. They say the later start would give elected leaders more accurate fiscal information because it would occur after rather than before the April 15th income tax deadline. State Senator Liz Krueger, who chaired a special budget reform committee, said their seven-point plan also calls for stricter accounting principles.
"If any year demonstrates how fundamentally broken New York State's budget process is, this is the year," Krueger said. "We have a budget process that allows shady accounting practices and encourages a model of non-accountability for spending, revenues and borrowing."
Minority Republicans in the Senate criticized the Democrats for not following a budget reform plan approved in 2007 that was supposed to end the era of late budgets. On Wednesday's Capitol Pressroom on WBFO, Ken Lovett of the New York Daily News argued Senate Democrats are putting the cart before the horse.
"They're doing a press conference on budget reforms without having a budget in place," Lovett said. "They have other things they should be focusing on right now."
Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson bristled at criticism that state leaders are dragging their feet. Sampson says he spent much of the Easter-Passover recess working with staff on revenue projections and expressed confidence budget negotiations will move forward in the coming days.