McDonald: “Get to Work and Get the Job Done!”

McDonald calls on Governor Paterson to bring the Legislature back and finish the State Budget

Albany, NY July 21, 2010 — Senator Roy McDonald today called Governor Paterson to bring members of the Senate and Assembly back to Albany and finish the New York State Budget. The budget has been past due since April 1^st and it appears as if the Senate Majority would like this process to evaporate and disappear until the end of the year.

“We can’t let that happen, it’s time to get to work and get the job done,” said McDonald.

Citing months of budget extenders, the complete lack of an open and transparent process, along with the failure of leaders to call legislators back to fulfill their elected responsibilities in the past few weeks, McDonald said it’s time to come back and get to work.

“It’s plain and simple, the legislature needs to be in session. No one has earned a summer vacation this year; this is not the time to be out enjoying nice weather while hardworking men and women are forced to wait to see if the services they need or funding for their jobs will be contained in the final budget,” said McDonald. “We were told that during the past couple weeks we would be called back to finish the job, as expected that has not happened and it’s time for the Governor to call a special session so we can finish the budget.”

McDonald has been critical of the budget process since the passage of last year’s disaster of a budget, which he voted against. In an effort to demonstrate to colleagues that public input and an open and transparent process is superior to a closed door secretive one, McDonald held two public hearings, one each in Rensselaer and Saratoga Counties. He then held three budget round tables, focusing on different topics such as economic development and transportation issues, where local elected officials and business leaders expressed their concerns and shared ideas on how to improve the state budget.

“Public hearings along with round tables filled with local leaders led to great ideas and that’s how I was able to eliminate local taxes as a Town Supervisor, it’s the right way to do business,” said McDonald.

Since before the April budget deadline, McDonald has called on his colleagues to have open budget meetings, to stay and work instead of taking a spring vacation, and to finish the budget instead of continually passing budget extenders.

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