DEMS ARE FIGHTING: Democratic leaders of the Senate and Assembly, are defending their budget proposals and noting that disagreements over the details of the budget are to be expected two weeks before the deadline.

“We’re going to go forward and try to do this budget, do it on time,” said Senate Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-#Yonkers in upstate press reports.

Governor Andrew Cuomo Cuomo argues lawmakers in the Assembly and Senate want a budget that is too bloated when compared to his $175 billion budget proposal.

Andrew Cuomo also blasted the Assembly for not including a provision in its budget recommendation that would make permanent the 2 percent property tax cap implemented in 2012.

According to Andrew Cuomo’s budget office, the Senate budget proposal would spend $3.5 billion more than his plan.

Democrats won control of the Senate in last fall’s elections after a decade of Republican rule in the chamber.

Andrew Cuomo last week criticized the Senate’s new Democratic leaders as inexperienced and said they’re putting politics over good governance.
“They have not governed, and they’re political,” Andrew Cuomo said to reporters upstate

Yonker’s Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins says she spoke to Andrew Cuomo about the criticism and that she hopes the governor and lawmakers can work together.

“I question obviously why there is a constant criticism,” Andrea Stewart-Cousins said of Andrew Cuomo.