ALBANY — Democrats hailed this year’s state budget as a dream come true, but critics said it marked a historic low for lack of transparency.
“Nothing that happened this week can be remotely classified as democracy,” said Steve McLaughlin, an upstate Republican.
Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, a Democrat, complained about the process. Some budget bills were delivered to lawmakers in the wee hours on Friday, still warm from the copiers.
“The details of the budget came together late in the process and outside the public’s view, so more analysis is needed to examine the long-term impact of these spending decisions,” he said.
Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb blasted the three Albany leaders — Gov. Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie — for hashing out the $156 billion spending plan at unknown times and locations, “establishing a new level of secrecy and dysfunction.”
“New Yorkers didn’t get ethics reform in the final 2016-2017 state budget but they got the most secretive negotiation in history and a job-crushing minimum- wage hike,” he said. “Lawmakers were asked to vote on spending bills that omitted spending details, a new low for the budget process.”
Cuomo aides said Kolb and other members were hypocritical because they voted for former Gov. George Pataki’s late budgets without knowing what was in them.