Albany Budget Delays Threaten Schools and Hospitals

0:00 Speaker 1 Well, what’s going on in Aubany. Well, the time that’s been giving us pretty good answers lately is center George Burrello from me Great County of Chautauqua County upstate New York. Well Santra Barrello, give us an update. Does anybody know what’s really going on in Normandy?

0:18 Speaker 2 Well, I’ll tell you what. That’s the million dollar question right now in Albany. You know, this week we thought we would start to see some budget bills drop and nothing once again. In fact, after a session on Thursday, you know, we were told by the majority that it looks unlikely that we’re even going to have budget bills

0:38 next week going into Memorial Day weekend. John, this is the longest we have gone without a budget in almost twenty years now, and the fifth consecutive a year in a row under Kathy Hochel that the budget has been late.

0:53 And this is a real problem. You know, as you and I have discussed in the past, for schools and hospitals and not for profits. You know, we have at schools that are going into their budget votes trying to decide what they’re going to put on there, whether they’re going to raise taxes or lower taxes, and they can’t

1:10 do that because they don’t know what kind of funding they’re going to get because there is no state budget. So here we are, six weeks in County without a New York State budget.

1:21 Speaker 1 Well, some of the hospitals can’t pay their bills because they you know, they’re they’re waiting to be funded. I mean, I hope that doesn’t count create any injuries. Now, the relationship between what happened in I guess Albany and what’s happening in the city and you’re responsible for overall, you’re responsible for Albany. Now, what is the actual deal between

1:48 the city and the state.

1:50 Speaker 2 Well, you know you’ve seen Mayor Mamdani kind of declare victory on his tax on top of a tax with that piet of Terror tax, but yet that has not been finalized. The governor announced another four billion dollars in aid to New York City to help the mayor close this budget gap, and I think at this point there

2:13 might even be more. So the finances seem to be that Mayor mum Donnie is getting a lot of what he wants out of Kathy Hochel and the Democrats because quite Frankly, she needs him and his supporters going into this election, so she’s buying her votes of billion dollars at a time and from New York City’s mayor and

2:36 his supporters. So that being said, we still don’t know what the total budget’s going to be. Over About a week and a half ago now, the governor made an announcement two hundred and sixty eight billion dollars, again another record breaking budget. But we really don’t know if those the final numbers are because we haven’t seen those budget doings.

2:55 Speaker 1 Now I’m just stetting part of that money. They allowed pension funds not to be paid and accounting that towards well, eventually you have to be paid.

3:08 Speaker 2 Though well, yeah, there’s no doubt that there’s a little bit of of a financial shell game going on here, you know, messing with the pensions, looking at certain ways that aid is calculated. So there’s no doubt that in that four billion dollars is a little bit of accounting magic, if you will. But you know, at the end of

3:31 the day, there is a huge structural deficit looming in Albany at the state level, and a structural deficits in New York City. So the fact that two entities, the state and the city, both of which are spending far more money than they’re taking in, are still somehow thinking that we can do this through some sleight of hand.

3:53 It’s just very concerning. You know, New Yorkers are voting with their feet. They’re leaving in droves, particularly people that pay taxes and employ people. And this is the result. This is a you know, this is a declining game for Kathy Hokel and zoram’m donnie because they continue to punish the people that are actually paying the bills. They’re

4:13 both good at one thing, killing the golden goose. And that’s what we’re watching right now.

4:18 Speaker 1 Is there anybody in Normandy that promotes common sense?

4:23 Speaker 2 Common senses are gonna rare supply myself, my Republican colleagues, absolutely, we are the voice of reason. That’s why we’re seeing some things that are actually starting to change. They’ve announced that the budget will include a five year extender on this damaging and dangerous electric school bus mandate, so an additional five years will be in the final budget. We

4:47 are told. You’ve seen other things that like the Climate Act, which the governor is desperately trying to pump the brakes and also extend that out because, as you know, our electricity prices, our energy prices are going up because of poor infrastructure and the lack of investments in infrastructure, because of the fact that the Democrats and apathy with their

5:08 radical climate agenda have told these companies don’t invest here. So they are trying to desperately put together something to provide some kind of relief. But I believe it’s only temporary. You know, this is another election year stunt extending things out. No, we need to cancel those mandates. We need to repeal the CLCPA, We need to restore common sense, and we

5:30 need to restore balance in our government. That’s the real thing, and that is up to the voters, the voters in New York State. They’re the ones that have to come to their sense and vote for common sense over radical ideals.

5:41 Speaker 1 The Santa George BURRELLO, thank you for the update. Let’s talk again. Real so great. Thank you,