SENATE, ASSEMBLY ON FORM TO THE END

TROY - Outside of a two-house bill requiring hunters to wear
fluorescent orange gear while hunting, it was much of the same on
Monday, the second to last day of the legislative session.

Gov. George Pataki, state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver emerged from a nearly three-hour
meeting without agreeing on anything.

The governor proposed a six-week budget extender to keep the state in
business until Aug. 2. It is much longer than the one- and two-week
extenders that have been passed since April 1, the start of the
state's fiscal year.

After some debate on the floor, the Senate approved the bill. But
after threatening not to pass it and to essentially shut down the
government Monday afternoon, Silver and the Assembly Democrats passed
a resolution asking for only a one-week extender.

"It's outrageous," Pataki said of Silver's threat. "The speaker is
saying we have to be held hostage or we can't do our job, but the
extender will automatically expire with the passage of a budget."

Today, the session officially ends without a budget in place for the
20th straight year, and issues long outstanding remain unresolved.
Legislators will head home and negotiations will continue behind
closed doors.

Bruno said it is a waste of time and taxpayer dollars to keep his
chamber in Albany while so little substantive work is taking place. He
is prepared, he said, to call lawmakers back if something of
significance is agreed upon.

"We agreed in December to close down on June 22," Bruno said. "We will
continue to talk and continue to negotiate. ... What we are not going
to do is sit around here."

The three leaders do hold out hope of agreeing on a "handful," of
items - down from more than two dozen last week - but relations were
still tense Monday, particularly between the governor and the speaker.

There was a flurry of activity as lobbyists bounced between the Senate
and Assembly chambers, and the houses passed one-house bills with
assembly-line efficiency.

But how to satisfy a court order, mandating that the state better fund
New York City schools, remains the largest stumbling block to reaching
a budget deal. Leaders want to re-formulate school aid statewide to
avoid similar lawsuits, but the state has until July 30 to get it
done, or the court could appoint a special master.

A host of other non-budget-related items are being held hostage by the
lack of a budget, such as reform of the harsh Rockefeller-era drug
laws, new regulations to site power plants, insurance parity for
mental health patients, known as Timothy's Law, and how to implement
the Help America Vote Act.