Kemp Hannon's News items

Albany leaders think they don't need to be open about budget negotiations

March 18, 2009

 Two years after passing an open-government reform bill, Albany leaders are dealing as deeply in closed rooms as ever.

By Tom PreciousNEWS ALBANY BUREAU

 ALBANY — The Democrats running the State Senate are proposing a novel approach to this year’s budget process: don’t bother passing a budget first before trying to resolve differences in public with the Assembly.

In the upside-down world of Albany, Senate Democrats said Thursday they will dispense with the recent tradition of members of each house passing their own budget alternatives, then going to public conference committees to settle fiscal disputes, mostly in secret.