Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay

Following is a statement from New York State Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay:

After a month-long delay that featured six emergency extenders, secretive meetings and several backdoor deals, the recently passed state budget amounted to another missed opportunity. At a time when inflation remains problematic and the state’s sky-high cost of living has driven hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers away, we needed a budget focused on relieving the enormous fiscal pressure facing New York families. Unfortunately, the record-setting spending plan that was just passed completely ignores that reality.

Members of the state Senate and Assembly Republican Conferences today urged Gov. Kathy Hochul and the legislative Majorities not to use so-called “messages of necessity” to bypass the constitutionally-required three-day aging process once budget bills are introduced. This critically-important “aging” provision of the state constitution helps to ensure that the public, the press, and all interested parties have the opportunity to review the budget bills before they are enacted into law.

Assembly Democrats today blocked a Republican proposal to suspend state sales tax on gasoline and a variety of everyday purchases, a measure which would have helped New Yorkers manage persistent inflation. The “Inflation Relief & Consumer Assistance Plan” (A.1690, Barclay) was rejected by Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee, preventing the bill from advancing to the Assembly floor.

“Rules aren’t supposed to change in the middle of the game. But the longer Democrats are in power, the more it seems to happen in Albany. The process of nominating a new chief judge has turned into a blatant attempt by New York Democrats to circumvent