The New Three Men In A Room
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- July
- 20
Well, they met at the governor’s mansion in a room, and then with the media on the mansion’s front balcony. But the infamous “three men in a room” were reconvened this afternoon with its newest member, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Rockville Center, Suffolk County.
Skelos replaces former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, but in his first meeting with Gov. David Paterson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, they reached no compromise during their hourlong, behind-closed-doors meeting at the mansion in Albany.
They said they will continue to work toward a property-tax cap, but Silver remains concerned about the impact it would have on school aid. Skelos said his chamber expects to come back within a month and pass Paterson’s tax-cap plan
And Paterson said he hopes to find a compromise between the sides and also work with them on possibly trimming the current 2008-09 if the state’s fiscal condition continues to deteriorate. They are also planning to work on how to find relief for homeowners this winter in the face of an expected huge increase in home heating oil prices this winter.
Lastly, they want to decide out which of the three firms in the mix will get the rights to install video lottery terminals at Aqueduct Race Track.
Skelos offered no insight into what the induction ceremony entailed to be member of the “three men in a room.”
Paterson said there was no fancy handshake, but joked that it will cost Skelos $5,000 to join.
Asked what’s different with Skelos in the room rather than Bruno, who was leader for 14 years, Paterson quipped, “Now I have more seniority.”
This entry was posted
on Sunday, July 20th, 2008 at 6:09 pm by Joseph Spector.
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Jay Gallagher has covered Albany for Gannett News Service since 1984 and has been Albany Bureau chief since 1989. He`s a native of the Boston area and likes to point out that in this millennium, the score is Red Sox 1 championship, the Yankees 0. 
Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them. 
