By Tom Precious
ALBANY -- Forget Saturday. The Assembly is telling rank-and-file members to forget about coming back to Albany on Saturday to start passing budget votes. Now, they are being told of a 4pm session on Sunday. They hope to wrap up voting on Monday, though if things don't go well there is a window of opportunity -- Passover holiday-wise -- next Thursday and into Friday to complete things.
The Senate has not yet decided to delay a return until Sunday, a spokesman said this morning. Officially, Senate is still on for Saturday. UPDATE: Senators have now been told they do not have to return to Albany until Sunday at 4pm.
Only one budget bill made it into print last night -- the capital bill, which outlines billions in various known and unknown capital projects around the state, including $54 million for the state's share of the renovation of the Buffalo Bills stadium.
Then there's a mystery provision at the bottom of the bill that has budget watchers scratching their heads. It calls for $385 million for capital costs of "construction, improvement, rehabilitation, or reconstruction of facilities owned by the state or municipal corporations, including colleges. Not sure yet is: does the governor control how the money is spent, does it include private colleges and what projects are envisioned. We have those questions into the Cuomo administration and will let you know when we know.
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