Albany

At about 8:30 a.m. Friday morning, the members of the state Senate started voting on one of the final bills needed to complete the state budget.

Lawmakers in the minority conferences had been grousing for a while about not having the time to read legislation they were voting on — but this one was different.

Not only was this bill — a technical measure that concerned pay for health care workers — rushed to the floor; the actual legislation hadn't even been printed yet and was thus unavailable for those seeking hard copies.

But they were voting on it anyway.

Sen. Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat, quipped that they were about to cast a "virtual vote" on a "virtual bill."

Lawmakers at that point had been up for more than 30 hours straight.

The Legislature's minority conferences, Senate Democrats and Assembly Republicans, have long complained about being shut out and kept in the dark when it comes to final budget talks. And the Albany tradition in which "three men in a room" hash out budget details has long been bemoaned by critics.

But this year, the secrecy with which the $145 billion state budget was finalized reached new levels, according to lawmakers and outside critics.

"It's as secretive as I've ever seen it," said Blair Horner, legislative director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, a leading good government group.

One telling detail that backs this up: Some of the budget talks among Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Senate GOP Leader John Flanagan and Assembly Democratic Speaker Carl Heastie were held without fanfare in the governor's mansion, as opposed to the traditional site of the governor's office — at least until the very end.

Because of the venue change, leaders were able to avoid the crush of news reporters who stake out the Capitol's second floor.

"It's always been 'three men in a room,' but this year it was different since no one had a sense of what was being negotiated," said Barbara Bartoletti, legislative director for the state League of Women Voters. "Much of it was done off campus in a private residence, the governor's mansion. That's first time I have heard that." (The mansion is state-owned but serves as the governor's residence while he's in Albany.)

Then there was the budget's inclusion of what good government groups called "dark pools" of spending allocations for broad overall categories rather than line items for specific uses. Money for, say, a particular road or bridge project would fall into the vast category of statewide transportation spending.

The lack of time to read bills in the frenzied last days of the budget negotiation was also an issue.

Both Cuomo and lawmakers want to say they hit the March 31 budget deadline, a feat that has been heralded as a sign of functional state government.

To achieve that this year, Cuomo offered almost all the budget bills with "messages of necessity" that allows legislation to be printed and voted on by lawmakers without the usual three-day waiting period during which bills are normally reviewed.

While envisioned as an emergency measure, messages of necessity have been used in the past for hot-button pieces of legislation such as the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2011 and the SAFE Act gun control law in 2013.

Cuomo's office noted that other governors, including David Paterson and George Pataki, used far more messages of necessity.

Still, critics said there was too much focus on getting an on-time budget at the cost of proper public scrutiny.

Dick Dadey, executive director of the good government group Citizens Union, slammed the rapid timetable on Thursday morning, when only a few pieces of budget legislation had been released — and even those measures arrived with significant details omitted pending more negotiations.

"The New York State budget was already late midnight (Monday) when the deadline for three-day public review was missed," he said in an email. "To pass a $150 billion taxpayer-funded budget containing major new policies without public review is a travesty. The governor should not issue messages of necessity so a false claim can be made that the budget was passed relatively on time."

The 42-member Assembly Republican conference, who are vastly outnumbered in the 150-seat chamber, often complain of being left out of the process. This year's bitterness was particularly sharp.

"The State of New York is not going to grind to a halt over the weekend," said Western New York Assemblyman Andrew Goodell as he urged, unsuccessfully, that lawmakers sift through the budget bills before voting even if it meant taking a few more days.

"This is darkness in spending," added Glenville's James Tedisco, who noted that the advent of "paperless" bills thanks to the use of tablets — a change he spearheaded — hasn't made things any more transparent. "We don't have time to really read the bills."

Not everyone was upset. Democratic majority Assembly members, for instance, were happy enough with the results to shrug off the criticism of clandestine negotiations.

"This is exactly the type of budget Assembly Democrats dream about," Heastie said on Friday as Assembly members prepared to vote on the final budget bills.

With a minimum wage increase, paid family leave and increased school funding, they had little to complain about. And despite the rushed manner of approval, Heastie said he was confident there would be no nasty surprises in the budget bills, which can take hours to fully comb through.

"There were no Trojan horses," he said.

Democratic Assemblyman Phil Steck of Colonie, whose district includes parts of Albany and Schenectady counties, believes the budget process is open — until the very end, when final deals have to be struck.

"The reality is the budget process started two months ago," Steck said, recounting the numerous hearings and meetings during which lawmakers offer input and make requests for their districts.

In the final act, he said, "someone has got to make the final compromises" even if it takes place out of public view.

Krueger, who complained about the Senate's consideration of a virtual bill, said that a lack of transparency has long been a problem when it comes to making laws and budgets.

And while she's not sure if it is worse under Cuomo, she believes the governor has "fine-tuned" the problem.

rkarlin@timesunion.com • 518-454-5758 • @RickKarlinTU