“What the people of Monroe County need is results, not political games. With the reality of the distance between the Senate and the Governor when it came time to make the tough decisions it was the Assembly that was able to build a bridge to close the gap and find a middle ground,” Assemblymen Koon said. “It was important to make sure cuts would not affect programs that receive matching federal dollars. The deficit reduction bill successfully preserves $500 million in federal health care reimbursements state taxpayers were entitled to.

State property taxpayers were protected from mid-year school aid cuts but schools are forewarned that they will be seeing $391 million less in federal stimulus aid next year and should plan their budgets accordingly.

The headway that we have finally been able to make towards closing the budget gap has not come easily, but the Assembly believes that the true budget gap is closer to $3.9B. My colleagues and I in the Assembly were ready to make more tough choices but the political reality is that the senate would not do anymore.

“The reality of the budget deficit reduction legislation is that it will ensure that New York can pay its bills for the remainder of the fiscal year,” Assemblymen Koon said. “Now we need to focus our attention on next year’s budget and the continued cost saving measures we’ll need. We have risen to the challenge before, now we must do it again.”

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