STATEMENT FROM NEW YORK STATE SENATOR RICH FUNKE

“There is only one reason we don’t have a final state budget right now and his name is Andrew Cuomo. The Governor claims he'll keep working towards a final budget, but the truth is he's embracing gridlock while middle-class tax relief, local school aid, and Upstate ridesharing hang in the balance.  The Senate has been working in good faith to deliver a budget that invests in our communities while protecting our taxpayers, but the Governor has been playing political games. Everyone knows the Governor wants to go to Washington, but we didn't know he also wants to bring the worst of Washington dysfunction back home to us. For years our federal government went without a real budget, operating instead on an extender to extender basis that drove up spending and the national debt. Now the Governor says he wants to do the same with our state budget. Ridiculous. I invite the Governor to take a break from his partisan presidential campaign and do his job to deliver New York a budget.”