NYS Budget Extender issued
ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10)---The state budget deadline has come and gone. To keep state operations going and to pay employees, a $1.7 billion dollar budget extender has been issued until Thursday.
Senate Republicans criticized the late budget.
"The Governor— she hasn’t had an on time budget once and that’s unfortunate. I don’t get the sense there is any urgency," said Senate Minority Leader, Rob Ortt.
Proposed policy issues such as involuntary commitment, mask limitations, and changes to the state’s discovery law are still being discussed amongst state leaders.
Blake Washington, New York State’s Budget Director shared a budget update late Monday afternoon and spoke to the speed of the process.
"Our policy team, our counsels who work on the second floor, our agency commissioners, are very serious about the work that they do," explained Washington. "They are serious about— they put time and caution when they draft things, particularly as it relates to changes to the criminal code. These are people’s lives we are dealing with and everyone wants to be very very deliberate about how we deliver that."
At this point it’s unclear as to when the state budget will be finalized. There is a possibility that another budget extender could be issued this week.