Most legislators in both major political parties will tell you they are not happy with the budget, and that it may not be a good budget, but they feel it is the best they could do under the circumstances. Governor Paterson and legislators had to close a nearly $17 billion dollar deficit at a time when tax revenues are on a decline.

Once again, the budget was not passed on time. An on-time budget would have been passed prior to April 1, 2009. This budget was not passed until the evening of April 3, 2009, and the Governor did not sign many of the budget bills into law until the following week.

The budget passing process consumed days during the last week of March and the first week of April, causing legislators to remain in Albany an additional two days that week. The Democrats control the New York State Senate, and they are experiencing a steep learning curve on how to lead and handle Senate business, including the passing of the State Budget.

This year, the budget process went back to being drawn up by three men, privately meeting behind closed doors. The "three men in a room", process (as it is known in Albany) has been the practice in the past and now continues.

In the recent past, at least one of the three men was a Republican and legislative leaders hailed from different regions of the state, but this year, there was a unique twist. Three New York City Democrats, Governor David Paterson, Senator Malcolm Smith and Assemblyman Sheldon Silver, drew up the budget. They are all liberal Democrats from one area of the state – New York City. This led more than one to refer to the process no longer as merely "three men in a room", but now "three New York City Democrats in a room".

Assemblyman Sheldon Silver said that the budget negotiations did not need to be in the open, because Democrats controlled everything, and all Democrats were in agreement. Therefore, all that was needed were the Governor, the Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of the Assembly to negotiate the budget.

Governor Paterson wanted an on-time budget, since it would be the first budget where he was Governor through the entire process. The intent of the three was to develop the budget and have it ready on the last weekend of March. The Governor would issue letters of necessity for each budget bill. This would waiver the three-day aging requirement for a bill before the legislature could vote on it.

Republicans, unhappy at being left out of all budget negotiations and seeking time to review the bills, decided they would force the issue of the bills being printed and on the legislators’ desks for a minimum of three days before they would vote. Only 32 votes are required to accept the Governor’s letter of necessity, and the Democrats had the thirty two votes.

How could the Republicans hold Democrats to the requirement that bills remain on the legislators’ desks for a minimum of three days before they voted? The answer is found in denying quorum. To have a quorum, thirty-eight senators must be in the Senate chamber. This would require six Republicans to be present, in addition to the 32 Democrats. Without this quorum, no business could be conducted. The Republicans decided not to come into the chamber until the bills had aged three days allowing time to review the bills.

Senate Democratic leadership got some of the Budget Bills printed and on the Senators’ desks just a few minutes before midnight, Saturday night, March 28, 2009. By getting them on the Senators’ desks at this time, Saturday counted as one of the aging days, and these bills could be voted on Tuesday, March 31, and passed before the March 31 deadline for an on-time budget.

On Tuesday morning, March 31, Senate Republicans took the bills that had aged for three days and conferenced them for over five hours. Conferencing means the Republicans sequestered themselves in a room with their staff and advisors and analyzed the budget bills that were eligible to be voted on that day.

Democrats called for a Senate Session at 10:00AM. With the Republicans in conference, there were not enough senators on the floor to have a quorum and start the session. The session did not start until mid-afternoon, when the Republicans finished their conference.

The budget is over twenty-five hundred pages of fine print, legal jargon, printed on 8 ½ x 11 paper. When all the bills are stacked on top of one another, it creates a pile more than twelve inches high. No one had an opportunity to read the entire budget.

As each budget bill was brought for a vote, Republicans had numerous detailed questions. In most cases, they could not get satisfactory answers from the Democrats who had to defend the budget.

Democrats were at some disadvantage, since this was their first budget that they had to produce and defend. They were still learning the subject matter of all the various parts of the budget. It was obvious from observing the debates that took place over the next several days that the Democratic Senators were not properly prepared or had the adequate knowledge of the subject matter that they were attempting to defend. Republicans, having been in control for 45 years, knew the process and the subject matter in great detail, and they did not give the Democrats any slack for their lack of knowledge.
Republicans offered many amendments on each budget bill. Each amendment was debated one at a time, and a slow roll call was requested on most of them. A slow roll call requires five Senators to stand and call for a slow roll call. Each Senator’s name must then be called, and the Senator states his/her position on the amendment to the bill that is being voted on at that time. Slow roll calls are very time consuming. With the discussion of the amendments and the roll calls, some bills were being debated for five and six hours. This slowed the process, causing the Senators to stay in Albany an additional two days that week to vote on all the budget bills.

Rev. Jason McGuire, New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms’ Legislative Director described this year’s budget debate on the Senate floor as "agonizing" to watch. McGuire says, "Republicans drew out debate over several hours at a time on certain portions of the budget as Democrats tried to defend a budget that even rank and file Democratic members had little input on."

The Republicans were upset at being shut out of the process for developing the budget, and they also felt that the constituents they represented would be slighted by the Democratic-produced budget. Upstate New York is predominately represented in the Senate by Republicans. Of the 32 Democrat Senators in the Senate, only five are from upstate New York. Republicans felt that New York City benefited at the expense of the rest of New York State.

In the midst of this budget-passing chaos, with tempers frequently flaring, one Democrat Senator, suddenly had to be rushed to the hospital. This left only 31 Democrat Senators, not enough to pass the budget. Since no Republicans supported the budget, the budget could not be passed.

The Senator was taken to the hospital on Tuesday, the first day of the budget passing process. She was returned from the hospital in a wheel chair Tuesday night, to cast a vote so that the first budget bill could be passed. The Senate closed around 10:00 PM that evening and resumed on Wednesday morning. The sick Senator, Senator Hassell-Thompson, (D-Mount Vernon)was kept in the Lieutenant Governor’s office, adjacent to the Senate Chamber, with three EMTs taking care of her. This was all done so she would be present when a vote was taken on an amendment or a budget bill.

On Wednesday, Senator Hassell-Thompson took a turn for the worse and had to be returned to the hospital. Before she left, the Republicans and Democrats agreed to call each bill to the floor and let her cast her yes vote, then discontinued the roll call. This allowed her to be recorded as voting yes on all the budget bills. She was returned to the hospital with pneumonia.

There were no Republicans in either house that supported any of the budget bills. All Democratic Senators supported every budget bill. In the Assembly, a number of Democrat members voted against some of the budget bills. They did this because, in the Assembly, a number of Democrats could vote against the budget bills and not impact the outcome. There are 109 Democrats in the Assembly, and they need only 76 votes to pass a bill. Therefore, a number of upstate Democrats voted against various budget bills, knowing that all New York City Democrats voted in favor of them.
In summary, you could say that the budget was masterminded and developed by three New York City Democrats in a room with no Republican input and very little Democratic input from members of either house of the legislature.

The passing of budget bills continued through early afternoon, Friday April 3, 2009, at which time the Senate was interrupted and informed of the shooting tragedies in Binghamton, New York. The Democratic Senators allowed Senator Libous, a Republican who represents Binghamton, to cast his vote on the remaining budget matters and immediately return to Binghamton. After Senator Libous cast his vote and left, the debates continued until nearly 5:00 PM, when the final vote was taken.

After passing the Senate, the Budget Bills were sent back to the Assembly, which had passed all Budget Bills on March 31, 2009, by using Letters of Necessity from the Governor. The Assembly sent the bills to the Governor. Many were not signed and officially legal until the following week when Governor Paterson signed them.

Since Democrats developed and passed the budget, they will likely bear responsibility for the consequences of this budget. Republicans are hoping that voters will remember this when they go to the polls in November of 2010.