Closed

AMNY: It’s a game of chicken set to end at midnight Monday with angry New Yorkers caught in the middle.

The state government could literally shut down at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday if a band of lawmakers refuse to pass the governor’s week-long emergency spending bill that calls for year-long cuts to human services and other programs. For New Yorkers, that could mean everything from a freeze in unemployment checks to a halt in the Mega Millions lottery...

Without a state budget agreement since April, Gov. David Paterson has been taking a piecemeal approach...

“I think frankly the pressure is forcing the legislature to do the responsible thing,” gubernatorial front-runner candidate, Democrat Andrew Cuomo, said at the Puerto Rican Parade Sunday...

The legislators “risk subjecting the public to unimaginable pain that’s unnecessary,” Paterson said yesterday...

The feds and other state governments have shut down during budget impasses, but not New York. The city has plans in place if the worst case scenario should happen, a mayoral spokesman said, though he did not detail what those were.

BBW: “We are not going to shut down government and risk the safety and livelihood of millions of New Yorkers,” said Austin Shafran, a spokesman for Senate Democrats, who are led by John Sampson of Brooklyn, in an e-mailed comment yesterday. “As we continue to make progress on a final budget, we expect to pass the emergency extender and meet taxpayers’ needs.”

Paterson told a gathering of reporters last night in Albany that legislators’ comments that the spending bill will pass were “encouraging,” though he declined to predict the outcome of today’s vote. “One never really knows what’s going to happen in the Senate,” he said.

NY1: State Senate Democrats are assuring New Yorkers that there will not be a government shutdown today, as Albany lawmakers are set to vote on Governor David Paterson's latest emergency budget extender bill.

Democrats have not said exactly how they will gather the 32 votes needed to pass it.

Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada had threatened to vote against the bill if the governor continued to include permanent spending cuts in the weekly bills, but Espada said yesterday that progress was made over the weekend and he now expects the bill to pass.

The bill to keep the state running also includes some $327 million in cuts to mental health and social services, to help bridge the state's $9.2 billion budget gap.

Bronx Senator Ruben Diaz Sr. has said he will vote against any more cuts.

Republican Schenectady Senator Hugh Farley said Paterson's bill is "horrible," but that he would vote for it to prevent a shutdown.

Meanwhile: AP via BBW: NY agencies hosting high-speed rail conference

Rewind: December 9, 2009: "New York is now at the breaking point. We are about to cross the financial rubicon into fiscal disaster."