ALBANY – Maybe Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) delivered an ‘early’ budget to Gov. Cuomo after all – if only technically speaking.
The powerful speaker, whose influence in the Assembly chamber appears to extend over time as well space, literally rolled back the clock Wednesday night to ensure the legislative record conveniently shows the governor’s entire budget passed before the stroke of midnight.
In reality, the last three bills each passed after 12:00 a.m., providing the first “on-time” budget in five years, but causing some to speculate that Silver had quietly stalled debate just long enough to rob the ascendant Cuomo of the first “early” budget since 1983, when his father, Mario Cuomo, was governor.
But Official vote sheets acquired by The Post show the last four pieces of legislation needed to complete the budget are all marked as passing precisely at 11:55 p.m. Presto! Early budget secured.
“That’s a classic!” quipped Blair Horner, NYPIRG’s veteran legislative director. “Only in Albany can time stand still. They were going to get it done by midnight if they had to stop time to do it.”
Assembly Majority Leader Ronald Canestrari (D-Albany), who leads Assembly floor debates, denied any effort to subvert reality.
Assembly rules allow extending a session to avoid having to stop and got through all the formalities of starting a new session, Canestrari said. So, knowing that the rushed session might extend past midnight, the last bills were marked in advance as if they had all passed March 30, he said.
“It’s routine, it’s permitted and it facilitates the process, speeds it along, without any intent other than that,” Canestrari said. “I’m not sure about ‘legally,’ but from my perspective it’s an early budget.”
The speaker clearly agrees, if for a different reason. Silver told reporters early Thursday morning that the budget was early because the Assembly had passed all the actual appropriations bills before midnight.
“We did a complete budget before midnight,” Silver said. “I don’t think it makes a difference. It was an early budget no matter how you look at it, whether it was 23 hours early or 24 hours early.”
brendan.scott@nypost.com