The State Legislature succeeded in passing an on-time budget for the first time in five years. Despite some protestors and other efforts to disrupt the process, the State Senate managed to pass all of the budget bills before midnight March 30^th. The State Assembly wrapped its work up around 1:00 AM early March 31^st. 

Had the Assembly held its final vote only an hour earlier, New York would have adopted the first early budget since 1983 (ironically this was the first year of Gov. Mario Cuomo’s administration). Some, such as New York Post State Editor Fred Dicker speculate that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) intentionally delayed the vote so as to send Gov. Andrew Cuomo a message and deny him this feather in his cap. Can politics be this petty? Unfortunately the answer is yes.

The big news of the night however was a midnight vote in the State Assembly. The Assembly took up a vote on a budget amendment that would have denied taxpayer-funding of abortion. The amendment was introduced by Assemblyman Mark Schroeder (D-South Buffalo) and ultimately defeated, but the pro-life community made large gains in a very liberal chamber.

In the last decade, no more than 44 Members of Assembly have been willing to deny taxpayer-funding of abortion (normally it’s only 43 siding with life).  This year that number swelled to 57 – a pickup of 14 in one year. Planned Parenthood must be feeling the reverberation of that shot across the bow. New York is about twenty votes away from stopping taxpayer-funded abortion. It can happen.

The voting record on this pro-life amendment can be viewed here.