New York state legislators passed a 12th budget extender Thursday as a final budget agreement has yet to be nailed down.
The extender keeps state government funded through early next week.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said leaders have reached agreement on several areas, and he expects lawmakers to begin reviewing budget bills next week. But other lawmakers were less optimistic.
He said one topic of discussion remains how to help cities like Buffalo and others deal with budget deficits.
“I'd say it's still open, because we're still trying to make sure that we can want to help them into the future, not just this year,” Heastie said. “So, I don’t have a final [proposal] for you on what the cities are getting.”
So far, the extenders passed by lawmakers total $23.7 billion.
Republican lawmakers are blasting the continued delay in the state budget, which is now more than six weeks late. This is the latest state budget since 2010.
Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, R-North Tonawanda, said he’s skeptical that the budget will be done by Memorial Day.
“Obviously, that can change. I don't know that it will, but not a lot of answers and not a lot of reason for optimism as we move into next week at this point,” Ortt told reporters.
The session is scheduled to end June 4, so that means lawmakers are running out of time for the budget and other bills.
“We're running into the legislative time now, and so we're trying, as you can see, to pass bills while we're considering the budget,” said Deputy Senate Majority Leader Mike Gianaris, D-Queens. “But obviously member and staff attention is diverted to that, and it's really restricted what we can do legislatively.”
