(Long Island, NY) Below are the floor remarks from Senate Democratic Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins regarding the Senate budget resolution:
“Thank you Mr. President. Thank you Senator Flanagan and Senator Klein and thank you to all my colleagues.
And thank you to the staff on both sides of the aisle. I know the lead up to this exercise is extremely busy and your hard work and dedication is appreciated.
I also want to thank my Finance Ranker Senator Liz Krueger for her work on the budget and her advocacy for Senate Democratic positions.
Today on the first day of Sunshine week, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that this year’s budget process has taken a step back in transparency. The much maligned three men in the room process seems to have been replaced by a more secretive format of covert meetings and phone calls shielded from the press and public. I hope that in the remaining time left we can open up this process and allow all New Yorkers to see what we are doing on their behalf.
But getting to the substance of the budget. This budget resolution is a first step and has some positive things and some negative things.
I’m glad that we understand the importance of adequately funding our public education system and eliminating the GEA this year and at the same time increasing Foundation Aid. But we still haven’t dealt with CFE. And I wish we had not allowed political games to hurt our CUNY school system.
Also I think this budget misses a crucial opportunity—what so many have labeled Albany’s Watergate moment- and does not deal with any ethics reforms. We need to take concrete steps to restore trust in our State Government including restricting outside income and closing the LLC loophole.
I am glad that this resolution advances a paid family leave proposal but I do wish it went a bit further and I am slightly concerned that the language in the resolution does not match the language in the budget bill. No one in New York should have to choose their jobs over taking care of a loved one. I want to congratulate my Member Senator Joseph Addabbo for his advocacy on this issue. As well as Senator Jeff Klein for his advocacy.
I am disappointed that we did not take steps to help lift millions of people out of poverty and raise the minimum wage.
I’m glad that this resolution helps lower the tax burden on many New Yorkers but I wish that it would be much more targeted and help more working and middle class New Yorkers.
I wish that we also helped our local municipalities more and increased our AIM funding.
I wish we had got serious about our environment and stopped the sweeps from the RGGI fund and also not stripped funding from efforts to combat climate change.
While I agree with some things in this resolution there are far too many things that are left out . The budget simply doesn’t go far enough to help all of New Yorkers in the myriad of ways that we can. But we have three weeks to fix that and I hope we can get that done.
Let’s roll up our sleeves, put our political differences aside and deliver for all New Yorkers.”
