Albany, NY-- It’s April 13th and the New York State Budget is 13 days late and counting.

This is the fifth year in a row under the leadership of Governor Kathy Hochul and the Democratic Senate and Assembly Majorities that the state budget has been late without any real transparency about what a final budget deal will look like and when bills will be available for lawmakers, the public and media to review before being debated and voted on.

Senator Jim Tedisco (R,C-Ballston Lake), Senator Steve Rhoads (R,C-5th SD) and Assemblyman Joseph DeStefano (R,C-Medford) today are urging the Governor, legislative leaders, and their colleagues to make government transparency a priority and ensure that when final legislation is agreed upon by the Majorities and Governor, it is allowed to be publicly reviewed and vetted for three days as the state constitution requires and that bills are not voted on in the dark of the night.

Tedisco, Rhoads and DeStefano are sponsoring the “NYS Budget Transparency Act” (S.233/A.9089), a constitutional amendment to stop the abuse of “messages of necessity” and prevent secret government from keeping many legislators, the public and media in the dark when significant legislation is being voted on.

The “NYS Budget Transparency Act” would stop the clock on all legislative proceedings between midnight and 8 a.m., and limit messages of necessity except in the case of genuine emergencies such as a security threat, natural disaster, or dire fiscal situation. The bill requires a two-thirds majority vote to take up any message of necessity or to go into session in the middle of the night.

“A total eclipse is coming to Albany! If you thought we had government operating in darkness in how the Governor and Majorities have bastardized the budget process with their lack of transparency, wait until the nine budget bills come out! It will be a total eclipse and darkness will reign on New York taxpayers…the worst threat to a representative democracy,” said Senator Jim Tedisco.

“After having three months to work on and negotiate a state budget and failing to get the job done by the constitutionally-mandated April 1st deadline, the Governor and Majority Leaders, who control all levers of power in Albany, will likely give lawmakers a few short hours to review thousands of pages of budget bills that will cost taxpayers over $260 billion! This is no way to run a government. If they won’t police themselves when it comes to transparency, then we need the ‘New York State Budget Transparency Act’ to keep them contained and stop the abuses of messages of necessity, so the public is not in the dark about what’s going on at the Capitol,” said Senator Tedisco.

“In Albany, ‘messages of necessity’ have too often become messages of convenience, used to rush through massive budget bills in the dead of night and keep lawmakers, the public, and the media in the dark. After five straight late budgets, this broken process has become the norm, not the exception. The New York State Budget Transparency Act will restore accountability by ending middle-of-the-night voting and ensuring legislation is reviewed in the light of day—not hidden behind closed doors. New Yorkers deserve a transparent, responsible budget process that respects both taxpayers and the law,” said Senator Rhoads.

“Albany’s habit of passing bills in the middle of the night is a disservice to every New Yorker.  This bill forces the process into the daylight, where it belongs, and ensures that no budget or major policy is rushed through without proper scrutiny. This is about restoring transparency and accountability to a broken process.  Time and again, rank-and-file legislators are handed massive budget bills in the dead of night with no real opportunity to read them, debate them, or represent their constituents. That is not democracy—it’s dysfunction,” said Assemblyman DeStefano.

Sadly, it’s a time-honored tradition by governors to use messages of necessity to avoid the constitutionally required three-day aging period and push through a variety of controversial policy proposals by sweeping them into budget bills passed in the middle of the night while most New Yorkers are sleeping to avoid public scrutiny and thorough vetting by the media, public and legislators. This tactic has drawn widespread derision over the years.  

“As I’ve said before, if the Governor and Leaders think passing a state budget that’s projected to be billions of dollars above last year’s in darkness is so good for New York taxpayers, then why don’t my colleagues hold their press conferences at 3 a.m. instead of the light of day? Clearly, they don’t because they want a full airing of their ideas to the public through the media so they can be seen and heard. As the famed journalist Bob Woodward popularized, ‘Democracy dies in darkness.’ If an agreement hatched in the dark of night at 3 a.m. is so good for our state then it will still be a good one to be debated and voted on at 3 p.m.,” said Senator Tedisco.