State lawmakers have begun voting on budget bills more than a month after the state budget was supposed to be done.

Prior to the start of voting on budget bills on Wednesday, state Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, and Sen. James Skoufis, D-Newburgh, found a bit of common ground in a process that will likely result in largely party line votes to approve the state budget – the process stunk. Borrello and Skoufis spoke during the first Senate Finance Committee meeting Wednesday morning.

Borrello took aim at the Message of Necessity sent by Gov. Kathy Hochul that allowed voting to take place immediately rather than waiting three days for the budget bills to be introduced and reviewed as is required by law for legislation. Legislation introduced by 5:30 p.m. Wednesday was as much about policy as the numbers – numbers that weren’t included in bills available to the public Wednesday afternoon.

“Our fiduciary responsibility here, in this case, is to the people who elected us to make sure this budget has been thoroughly combed through and analyzed and been transparent,” Borrello said. “We don’t have that kind of time with these messages of convenience from the governor. They are just that – convenient for those in the majority who want to keep this process from being open and transparent so that the people can understand. So we are failing in our fiduciary responsibility as elected officials by passing the budget without giving the people ample time to know what’s in it, so I’ll be voting no.”

Skoufis made a similar complaint. This year’s budget is the latest state budget in 15 years. It included Hochul announcing a budget deal only to be contradicted on the Assembly floor by Assemblyman Gary Pretlow, who said state legislators weren’t ready to make a deal when Hochul made her announcement on April 27. Lawmakers ended up approving several budget extenders to keep the state government funded while discussion on the budget continued. Skoufis expressed his displeasure by voting Aye without Recommendation, a designation showing a legislator has voted in favor of a bill or motion without recommending it for further consideration.

“I just want to state for the record that I will be AWR on all of the budget bills,” Skoufis said of the Finance Committee needed to move the bills to the Senate floor. “That’s not necessarily a reflection on the substance of those bills but on the process, which I have found to be completely disgraceful this year. As a way of registering that discontent I will be AWR on those.”

Sen. Liz Krueger, D-New York City and Senate Finance Committee chairwoman, had expressed her disappointment with the state of budget talks several times on the Senate floor during debates with Republican senators. But, on Wednesday, Krueger struck a different tone as the process came to a close.

“This came up yesterday (Tuesday) and I pointed out this is how it was done when the Republicans ran the Senate,” she said. “This is how it’s apparently how it’s done now. I’m on record saying I don’t necessarily agree with this model but this is where we are. We will have messages of necessity, someone said convenience, legally it’s necessity, from the governor and I’m pretty danged sure we’re bringing this to the floor and we’ve got the votes.”