Skelos criticizes Cuomo over budget plan

ALBANY - The legislature's top Republican Tuesday gave voice to increasing complaints that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's proposed budget provides too little detail on some key issues and punted too many decisions to task forces - giving lawmakers scant time to negotiate.

"Normally, when a governor presents his budget, you see everything and the legislature works on it. This lacks the specificity we've seen in the past," said Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre).

Skelos slighted Cuomo's financial plan, released a week ago, as "his idea of a budget."

"We don't have totality that we [normally have] and that's the challenge," Skelos said.

Because Cuomo's Medicaid redesign team and a mandate-relief task force team won't make recommendations until March 1, the legislature will have just 30 days to adopt a budget to beat the April 1 deadline, Skelos said.

Asked what advantage Cuomo would get from that, Skelos said it would keep critics silent during a key period.

"For one month, you have a lot of the so-called special interests - he calls them stakeholders one day and vested interests another day - keep their powder dry," the senator said.

Cuomo officials did not return calls for comment.