From TimesUnion.com:

Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos revived a complaint from last year’s budget process: no conference committee hearings have been scheduled, which is stifling the ability of his members to have input.

“Budgeting is about priorities, and if they would ever open the door to us rather than sending a letter saying ‘I want to talk to you privately,’ or once in a while getting together on the second floor (for public leaders meetings) or asking our secretaries of the different houses of finance to get together and basically nothing happens, we want to be part of the process,” Skelos said this morning at a press conference where he unveiled a plan for property tax relief. “As you recall, last year we were shut out. We were told, everything is Democrat in New York State, we don’t need the Republicans.”

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