Senate Democrats To Stay Away From Paterson’s Address
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- November
- 5
Senate Democrats are not expected to attend Gov. David Paterson’s planned speech to a joint session of the state Legislature on Monday, saying they will return to Albany when they reach a budget deal.
“The Senate will return to Albany once they have an agreement,” said Selvena Brooks, spokeswoman for Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson, D-Brooklyn.
The Assembly and the Senate Republican minority are expected to attend the speech, but Senate Democrats said they are focused on trying to find agreement on closing the state’s mid-year $3.2 billion budget gap.
Paterson is expected to call a special session Tuesday on the budget after he addresses the Legislature in the Assembly chambers at 3 p.m. Monday.
While lawmakers are required by law to attend a special session if Paterson issues a proclamation, he can’t demand that they attend the speech.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 12:41 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. 
