By Tom Precious
Albany – State legislative leaders said tonight the debate
over casino expansion in New York does not have to be a part of the budget
discussions that officials hope to wrap up a week before the start of the March
31 fiscal year.
“It’s not part of the budget right now,’’ Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said
coming out of a closed-door meeting with other legislative leaders and Gov.
Andrew Cuomo.
“That’s another issue. We don’t need to have that whole gaming issue. It’s not
time-sensitive, right now, in my opinion … The budget is time sensitive,’’
added Senate co-leader Dean Skelos, a Long Island Republican.
Cuomo proposed casino “enabling’’ legislation as part of his 2013 budget plan
to accompany a separate resolution lawmakers are poised to consider again this
session to permit up to seven new casinos on non-Indian lands. But Cuomo
himself last week suggested the proposal can be taken out of the budget and
dealt with later in the session – as most lawmakers always assumed would happen
anyway.
With Christian and Jewish religious holidays falling in the last week of March,
officials have set March 21 as the last day of session before the start of the
fiscal year on April 1. To achieve that, it has appeared likely for weeks that
some controversial, non-budget issues contained in Cuomo’s plan – like the casino bill and a
plan to raise the minimum wage – would be punted until later in the session as
a way to get an on-time budget for the third year in a row.
tagged
Albany | Andrew Cuomo
