LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

March 26th, 2010

Back to News Main

This week, the Senate and Assembly released their respective 2010-2011 State Budget proposals.  The Senate proposal came in the form of a Resolution, which is a narrative on what the Senate accepts, rejects or modifies from the Governor’s Executive Budget Proposal released in January, but provides no specific provisional language.  Also included in the Senate Resolution were new proposals that the Governor had not introduced, that the Senate has indicated they would like to work towards enacting with a 3-way agreement.  The Assembly released their budget proposal by amending the Governors Budget Bills which contains specific amended, new or omitted provision language from the Governor’s Executive Proposal as well as new proposals not contained in the Governor’s Budget.  All relevant language and information pertaining to your specific areas of interest has been sent to you directly.
 
As you know, the constitutional deadline to enact the budget is April 1, 2010 and leaders from both houses have indicated that they will ask their conferences to stay in Albany through the weekend to continue budget negotiations in an effort to reach a 3-Way agreement and meet the constitutional deadline.   While it remains uncertain at this time if a budget will be enacted on April 1, 2010, both houses are prepared to pass emergency spending bills to continue to keep the State running until a full 2010-2011 State Budget can be agreed upon and passed.  
 
The legislature is scheduled to suspend legislative session next week in observance of Easter & Passover although it remains to be seen if the ongoing budget process will affect this scheduled break. At this time, there are no Committee Meetings or Legislative Session scheduled for 3/29 – 4/6 with the Legislature scheduled to reconvene on Wednesday, April 7. We will continue to keep you updated throughout the weekend and into next week on any new developments or information that becomes available pertaining to budget negotiations and/or impending joint conference committee meetings.