State Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, speaks with striking corrections officers who traveled to Albany in mid-March.

State Sen. George Borrello voted for the most recent budget extender bill to keep state money flowing during the impasse between legislative Democrats and Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Budget extenders are nothing new the past couple of years in Albany after years of on-time state budgets under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. But the growth in the extender bill passed last week rankled the Sunset Bay Republican because, in Borrello’s words, the spending is avoidable.

“I want to spend a little bit of time on the salaries here,” Borrello said last week on the Senate floor. “As was mentioned, last year for a similar time period we allocated $7 million. Now this year, $45 million, and admittedly largely for the National Guard troops. So I’ve heard a lot of hand-wringing, a lot of consternation about missing federal funding. It was cleaned out of the Department of Health and it’s a lot of money. However we’re spending $100 million a month for the National Guard. That’s the governor’s numbers. There’s a simple solution to this — the governor could federalize those National Guard troops. That $100 million cost would then go to the federal government.”

There is some disagreement over the $100 million figure. State Budget Director Blake Washington told reporters in late March that the state is paying “well over $100 million per month post-strike” for the National Guard mission and other interventions taken in the facilities to protect workers and the incarcerated population, according to Specrum News. That was the number Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, and Borrello quoted on the Senate floor. Republicans’ have estimated the cost of National Guard members staffing prisons to be around $20 million. Liz Krueger, D-New York City and Senate Finance Committee chairwoman, said she doubts the $100 million figure, but couldn’t disprove it either.

“I don’t have a breakdown. I’m not sure where that $100 million came from,” Krueger said. “I would point out that I believe the 2,000 people being referenced before were fired with cause, so we don’t have an option to have them remain in their positions. But I sort of doubt we’re paying five times the amount of money for the National Guard as we paid for correctional officers because as I recall there were a great deal of complaints that the National Guard got paid so little to do the same jobs in the prisons. So it would surprise me, but I don’t have the data.”

Borrello has been critical of Hochul throughout this year’s wildcat prison strikes that ended with the state’s firing of more than 2,000 guards who went on strike over poor working conditions. Last week state corrections Commissioner Daniel Martuscello directed prison leaders to begin identifying inmates who were convicted of minor crimes and already set for release within 15 to 110 days to be considered for an early discharge. Borrello criticized the early release plan, saying they may not have been necessary had Hochul handled the correction officer firings differently.

In February, Borrello issued a formal letter to Hochul demanding an immediate halt to the deployment of 6,500 National Guard members in New York’s prisons and calling on Hochul to negotiate in good faith with striking correction officers. In his letter, Senator Borrello cited reports from National Guard members and their families, who describe inhumane conditions, lack of proper safety protocols, and dangerously inadequate training. A retired Air National Guard officer warned that guard members with no corrections experience were being assigned to oversee some of the most violent inmates in the state — calling the situation “a powder keg about to explode.”

The region’s state senator continued his criticism of Hochul’s handling of the corrections officer strike on the Senate floor, particularly in comparison with Hochul’s criticism of federal funding cuts that she says put New York programs at risk.

“So if you want to know what the cost of that is, for the governor’s, I guess arrogance, it’s $100 million a month to the people in New York state,” Borrello said. “There’s a very simple solution she won’t take. Due to the politics of this, there’s only a concern for the money that’s flowing one way, not the money that’s flowing the other way and I think that that’s pretty egregious. The taxpayers of New York state are covering the cost of the governor’s inability to lead in this particular moment, for this particular crisis of her own creation. I’m a yes on this bill, but just remember, there is a cost to this for the governor’s mismanagement of this prison crisis – and it’s $100 million a month.”