LaValle, Palumbo blast one-house budget bills passed by legislature

The Democratic-majority state legislature has passed one-house budget bills opposed by the Republican members of the East End delegation.

Both State Senator Ken LaValle and Assemblyman Anthony Palumbo issued statements railing against the budget resolutions passed in their respective chambers.

LaValle had sharp words for the budget put forward “by the New York City-dominated majority” which he said called for “an outrageous amount of taxation.”

The senate budget resolution proposes “a $2 billion dollars increase in taxes for this year alone” that “not only pierces the 2-percent spending cap we have adhered to for the last eight years but completely obliterates it, spending far more than our taxpayers can afford,” LaValle said.

The majority’s one­-house budget resolution ignores the great need for meaningful tax relief, LaValle said.

Palumbo denounced “the tax­-and­-spend culture coming from New York City Democrats,” which he said frustrates him.

The assembly’s budget bill “slaps an additional $5.7 billion in taxes on struggling New Yorkers,” Palumbo said.

“We are losing New Yorkers to other states at an alarming rate, and I fear that if residents already have one foot out the door, another tax increase just kicked them completely out the door,” he said.

Palumbo added that he is pleased to see the restoration of the Extreme Winter Recovery Fund, Aid and Incentives to Municipalities (AIM) funding and funding to address water infrastructure projects throughout the state.

The assembly’s budget proposal does not include the marijuana legalization program sought by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. It is included in the senate’s resolution. That’s just one of many differences in the two one-house bills. A conference committee of members of both chambers gets to work today to resolve differences.

Both bills differ significantly from the governor’s executive budget proposal.

The state constitution imposes an April 1 budget deadline.