Senator Borrello participated in a forum with the sponsors of Senate Bill 2062, Senator Nathalia Fernandez and Assemblymember Anna Kelles.
State Senator George Borrello is co-sponsoring a bipartisan initiative that would prevent policy proposals from being included in the state budget.
In the 25 years since the ruling in Silver v. Pataki, which gave the Governor of New York unprecedented power in the budget process, many legislators and good government groups have claimed the governor’s ability to include policy in the budget places excessive power in the hands of the Executive branch. They have cited the many negative impacts of this practice, including late budgets, vetoed bills, and compromised policy.
Senate Bill 2062 sponsored by Democratic Senator Nathalia Fernandez would amend the state constitution to prohibit non-fiscal policies and programs from being included in the budget.
She said, “Currently, the NYS Constitution allows the Governor to unilaterally insert non-budgetary policy in the state budget, which often includes the most controversial and politicized issues. The Legislature is then required to vote on the Governor’s budget proposal as presented and cannot remove policies, regardless of whether or not they have any budgetary implications.”
This legislation was first introduced in 2018 and has gained bipartisan support this year.
Borrello said in a statement, “I’ve always been opposed to including policy into the state budget. Policy in the budget prevents full review of controversial issues, provides political cover to legislators, and causes standoffs during the budget process resulting in late budgets.”
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