“Obviously, there was a lot for our Conference to hate in this year’s budget. As the party of the hardworking middle class in New York, Minority politicians were never going to support a budget that raised taxes by billions of dollars, prevents police and immigration officials from doing their jobs and gives illegals free college while our kids Upstate pay off tens of thousands of dollars in loans.

“The Assembly Majority, too, hated this budget. Even the speaker said that many members had to “hold their nose” while they voted for it. Majority politicians who control both houses of the Legislature failed to hold the governor accountable and indulged his pursuit of ever-more power. They let him kill a provision that would set up a database of deals, a bipartisan measure that would promote transparency and make all of his economic development shams publicly searchable. They let him run roughshod over the Public Authorities Control Board by handing him the power to remove members even though the entire point of the committee is to provide checks and balances on the public contracting process. They let him cut funding for our local libraries, local agricultural programs and local infrastructure.

“There is bipartisan agreement that the governor has amassed too much power. The Assembly Minority responded by voting against a budget that was bad for the middle class and allowed the governor to expand his already cartoonish influence over the Legislative process. The Assembly Majority responded by voting to give the governor a massive pay hike. Eventually, rank-and-file Majority politicians are going to have to realize that they can just say no,” said Blankenbush.