Albany, NY – Legally Blind Governor Signed Wrong Version of State Budget Bill

Albany, NY –Oops.

It turns out New York’s state budget was not completed when everyone thought it was.

And, red-faced officials were just within hours today of shattering the all-time latest state budget adoption.

Blame it all on a mix-up that began Aug. 3, which led to Gov. David A. Paterson the next day signing what he thought was the final component of the 2010 budget.

Only problem was: it was the wrong bill.

The Senate on Aug. 3 approved the last budget bill — the so-called “revenue” legislation — that calls for more than $1 billion in new tax and fee hikes and several hundred million dollars of other revenue “actions” to help balance the $136 billion fiscal plan.

The Senate quickly shipped the bill over to the Assembly, which had already passed the bill in June. Because it approved the bill first, the Assembly had the legal duty to send the bill to the governor for his signature.

That’s what the Assembly did that night — only it was the wrong version of the bill, which the governor placed his signature on the next day.

“The Assembly gave us the wrong bill. The governor signed the wrong bill,” acknowledged Erik Kriss, a Paterson budget division spokesman.

Gov. David A. Paterson was expected to sign the bill later today, clearing up the confusion.

Sisa Moyo, a spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, said both legislative houses passed the correct version of the final budget bill. The Assembly enacted it more than a month before the Senate’s action on August 3.

 But she said through an administrative error and older version of the budget bill was sent to the governor. She noted the measure sent to Paterson – and signed — was not “live” because that version had not passed and had been amended by the final bill.

“Just in order to dot the I’s and cross the T’s he’s going to sign the…bill today,” she said.

The Paterson administration said the foul-up will not require the Legislature to return since the correct bill was approved by the both houses. Instead, the correct bill has now been sent by the Assembly and will either be dispatched to the governor, who was down in Manhattan today, or will be waiting for him the next time he comes to Albany.

Kriss said no tax increases were due to immediately go into effect, so he said there is still time for the governor to act on the right bill.

Asked how it happened, Kriss said, “That’s a question for the Assembly.”