Bruno Finds a Budget Culprit: Spitzer

This is why we have to keep the Republican majority alive in the senate, can you see what is going on here? We are at a stalemate because the Republicans refuse to raise taxes and fees. They also need to dump extra tax on cigarettes. This is insane that Paterson, Spitzer and the Assembly Democrats want to drive up the budget yet again this year by raising taxes, fees etc…… It’s pure lunacy.

What will happen is just like every other year more and more people will leave, businesses will continue to leave and less of us will have to foot the bill. We are on the verge of losing two more congressional districts. Why? because so many people have fled to the cheaper states in the south. Businesses leave because of the unbelievable costs of doing business here, utility costs, restrictions, insurance and the constant interference by the government.

So as much as many of you will disagree with me, the Republicans are the only ones fighting for us right now in Albany. The proof is right here, right now.

Bruno Finds a Budget Culprit: Spitzer

ALBANY — Joseph L. Bruno, the Senate majority leader, told reporters in a late-afternoon briefing that part of what is causing a delay in passing a state budget is that his Republican conference still does not agree with many of the taxes that remain in the executive budget crafted by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

“Our holdup is that we didn’t pass any of Spitzer taxes, about a billion-five with fees, in our budget and we are resisting some of those taxes being permatized on the people of this state because we think that it depresses the economy,” Mr. Bruno said. “That’s where we are philosophically.”

Mr. Bruno said that the budget proposed by the Senate Republicans had no new taxes or fees, though he said last week that he would support a cigarette tax to offset state healthcare costs.

“We reject a broad-based tax that the assembly did and yet we understand that you have to close a gap of $4.6 billion,” he said. “We’ve been resisting it and that’s where we are trying to negotiate through this.”

Mr. Bruno said that all 32 Republicans in the Senate majority, like other members of the Legislature, will be staying in Albany through the weekend to work on budget negotiations, along with the new governor, David A. Paterson, who gave his own take on the budget earlier today.

“We’re having a tough, tough time getting a resolution,” Mr. Bruno said. “We worked through last weekend. We’re all going to be working and I m just hopeful somehow we can reconcile the differences that still exist and do something about the onerous taxes, minimally, to sunset these taxes and get on with our lives and get a budget in place.”

But instead, he said, “We just seem to be spinning our wheels, going around and around talking about the same things and not getting conclusions.”

He said that he and his Senate Republican colleagues have been ready to vote on congestion pricing for several days, adding that it is the Democrat led Assembly that has been taking its time.

“We have been prepared to vote on it all week, we’ve been waiting,” Mr. Bruno said. As you know, the assembly has been discussing it three days in a row and were prepared to take it up at any time we think we can get a productive result.”

When asked if he had a message for Sheldon Silver, the Assembly speaker, who has been working behind the scenes with his conference to come to a conclusion on the congestion pricing debate, he said he had a message for more than just Mr. Silver:

I have a message for a lot of people that are on the other side of the aisle, and it is we have to deal in the real world, we have to face reality, we should get to a conclusion and get a budget done and move on with some of the other important issues of the people in this state.

He added: “I’m not trying to create a war here, were just trying to sort of communicate why we haven’t got a budget in place. And if we don’t reconcile what we’re discussing were going to be here for awhile and I’m afraid that it’s going to be a long while.”