Politics

New York's political primary election has been over for more than two weeks, but the long vote count is continuing at the Erie County Board of Elections, checking more than 151,000 paper ballots.

Erie County Board of Elections workers counted what votes they could late Tuesday night and went home, knowing Wednesday would be just as tough as the last week or two. They are waiting for the U.S. Postal Service to arrive.

Western New York Sen. Robert Ortt is the New York State Senate's new minority leader.

For the first time since Earl Brydges left the job as Republican leader in the State Senate at the end of 1972, a Western New Yorker might step back into the position However, Brydges had a majority and the new leader won't.

Under a proposal co-sponsored by State Senator Patrick Gallivan, future declarations of emergency by the governor would have a set time limit and would include submissions of weekly updates that would be reviewed by legislators.

The Brown administration will likely be watching closely as Congress debates a proposed aid package that would send $375 billion to boost local governments that are struggling with the financial strain of the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposal would send $1 billion to Buffalo. Geoff Kelly of Investigative Post expects the Republican-controlled Senate to reject the plan. Kelly reports the city budget faces a massive shortfall without the funding. 

Democrats among the Erie County Legislature are calling Comptroller Stefan Mychajliw's declaration of a budget deficit "premature" and even a "power grab," while his office says making such a declaration was their duty under the county charter.

The traditional march to the polls might wind up being a march to the post office in this COVID-19 year.

As New York State lawmakers finished up the state budget Thursday, two days after the deadline, one area of contention was making changes to the state’s bail reform laws. In the end, they compromised.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said legalizing recreational marijuana is not going to be part of the state budget this year. Cuomo made his comments as the budget deadline approached with no agreement on how to close a $15 billion budget gap, caused by the fallout from the coronavirus.

The deadline for the state budget is midnight March 31, and lawmakers, facing a massive deficit, are meeting at the State Capitol, which is off-limits to the public. Meanwhile, yet another legislator has tested positive for the coronavirus.

State lawmakers have just one week until the state budget is due, and despite the coronavirus outbreak, they say they intend to meet the deadline and will use precautions to avoid meeting in large groups.They face a daunting task of putting together a spending plan while a multibillion-dollar deficit grows each day.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is among those calling on the federal government to invoke the Defense Production Act so the Trump Administration can order factories to produce badly needed hospital gear to combat the coronavirus. Cuomo also says he’s looking at ways to allow mail-in balloting for the April 28 presidential primary.

New York City Public Schools will close until April 20 and Gov. Andrew Cuomo is ordering all downstate non-essential state workers to stay home starting Monday. But he says the legislative session will continue as planned this week, despite two state lawmakers now sick with the coronavirus.