Their hearing? When I read quotes like this it really makes me wonder what actually goes on in Albany except voting, and the majority of the time they vote the way their party tells them to vote. It’s quite the job at almost $100,000 a year. Sit and wait.

“We’re hearing they aren’t making any great progress,” Assemblyman William Parment, a Jamestown Democrat, said of the legislative leaders and governor.

NY budget behind schedule, leaders not agreeing on much

ALBANY, N.Y. - The New York budget process is behind schedule in a Capitol distracted by sex scandals, with lawmakers unable to agree even on how much they have to spend.

Budget conference committees were supposed to begin a week ago, but they still haven’t met. Under the state constitution, lawmakers must reach agreement on a 2008-09 budget by April 1.

“We’re hearing they aren’t making any great progress,” Assemblyman William Parment, a Jamestown Democrat, said of the legislative leaders and governor. “I’m disappointed they are not because I thought, with the disruption going around us, there would be an effort to close things down and pass it.”

Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer proposed a $124 billion budget that would have increased spending by 4.8 percent while the state faced a growing deficit estimated in February at more than $4.6 billion. State revenue is declining amid trouble on Wall Street _ which generates 20 percent of state revenue _ and Gov. David Paterson says New York is likely suffering because of a national recession.

Soon after Paterson replaced the disgraced Spitzer earlier this week, he met with legislators to work on spending cuts.

He said he wanted the spending increase limited to 3.7 percent by cutting $800 million from the proposal.

Paterson said Thursday he doesn’t support an Assembly bill that would raise taxes for New Yorkers who make $1 million or more.