ALBANY – Rookie Republican Assembly Member Patrick Chludzinski delivered more than "yes" and "no" votes for his first budget as a state lawmaker. He showed he's willing to vote alongside Democrats.
Chludzinski, R-Cheektowaga, broke with fellow Republicans to vote for four of the nine budget bills presented to lawmakers as they approved a $254 billion state budget on May 8. With the exception of one budget bill – which received votes from two other Republicans – Chludzinski was the only member of Western New York's 19-lawmaker delegation in either party to break rank from their party in voting on the budget.
"I looked at each budget bill – the positives and the negatives – and if there were certain particular things that were helpful to my district, then I had to support them," Chludzinski, a retired Cheektowaga police lieutenant who upset incumbent Monica Wallace, a Lancaster Democrat, in November, told The Buffalo News on Friday. "Overall, as a budget package, I believe it's very flawed. It increases the spending tremendously and doesn't really help our taxpayers in New York State just to get us moving in the right direction."
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Rookie Republican Assembly Member Patrick Chludzinski broke with his party on four of the nine budget bills "to fight for my district and Western New York." Joshua Bessex, News file photo
Lawmakers had to vote yes or no on each of the nine budget bills. They could not pick and choose which proposals within those bills to support or reject.
"I think if you took any one of us and presented us with these different budget bills, you'd look and find things that you think were good," Chludzinski said. "And then quite a few in some cases that you thought were not so good. And then you just have got to make the decision: Do you want to vote no on everything because of the process and the increase in spending and go that route? What I looked at was, if it benefited my district I tried to make sure that I supported that because basically that's why I'm here, to fight for my district and Western New York."
Chludzinski voted for a bill covering revenue; another funding education, labor, housing and family assistance; a third for capital projects; and another funding the State Legislature and Judiciary. Chludzinski voted against five budget bills: for public protection and general government; transportation, economic development and environmental conservation; health and mental hygiene; aid to localities; and state operations.
In voting for the revenue bill, Chludzinski became the only Western New York Republican to vote for Mayor Christopher Scanlon's 3% hotel occupancy or bed tax in the City of Buffalo, which was included in the budget. That same bill included three of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s top initiatives to help inflation-ravaged New Yorkers: her plan to send tax rebate checks of up to $400 to more than 8.2 million households; $1 billion in middle-class tax cuts through a reduction of the state’s first five tax brackets by 20 points over two years; and an expansion of child tax credits to give families with children younger than the age of 4 up to $1,000 per child, and families with children between ages 4 and 16 up to $500 per child.
By voting for the budget bill for education, labor, housing and family assistance, Chludzinski was the delegation’s sole Republican to vote for Hochul’s bell-to-bell prohibition on students using cellphones or other internet-enabled devices during the school day; as well as her proposal for free school breakfasts and lunches; and for new misdemeanor penalties (up to 90 days in jail) for wearing a mask to conceal one’s identity to evade arrest.
That bill included Scanlon's proposal to sell City of Buffalo parking ramps to a newly created Buffalo parking authority to generate revenue to fill a city budget estimated to exceed $70 million. Chludzinski noted that his district includes a section of the City of Buffalo, which is why he supported Scanlon's proposed financial aid package, including the bed tax. He said he thought it would be beneficial to help close the budget gap and did not want to vote against that.
"I am not for tax increases in the norm but this would be a tax increase that probably, likely would not burden the property owners in the City of Buffalo," he said. "The hotel/motel bed taxes are done so many places and usually you're getting that extra funding from outside of the area folks that are coming into your municipality to stay."
Chludzinski's bipartisan voting on the budget could be viewed as politically wise in a district where, among active voters, Democrats outnumber Republicans 37,952 to 20,675. The district includes 2,181 Conservatives, 608 Working Families Party members and 24,155 listed as others or blank. If Chludzinski wanted to find another Republican who voted alongside Democrats, he need only look to his conference leader. Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay, R-Pulaski, voted for four budget bills: public protection and government; capital projects bill; the bill for education, labor, housing and family assistance; and the bill for the Legislature and Judiciary.
In Western New York, legislators' budget votes were split almost entirely along party lines.
Voting yes on all nine budget bills were: Assembly Majority Crystal Peoples-Stokes, D-Buffalo, and Assembly Members Patrick Burke, D-Orchard Park; William Conrad, D-Tonawanda; Karen McMahon, D-Williamsville; Jonathan Rivera, D-Buffalo; Sean Ryan, D-Buffalo; and April Baskin, D-Buffalo.
Voting no on all nine budget bills were: Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt, R-North Tonawanda; and Sens. Patrick Gallivan, R-Elma; George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay; Thomas O'Mara, R-Big Flats, whose district includes part of Allegany County; and Assembly Members David DiPietro, R-East Aurora; Paul Bologna, R-Clarence Center; Joseph Sempolinski, R-Canisteo; Andrew Molitor, R-Westfield; and Andrea Bailey, R-Geneseo, whose district includes part of Wyoming County.
Assembly Members Angelo Morinello, R-Niagara Falls, and Stephen Hawley, R-Batavia, voted for the budget bill for the State Legislature and Judiciary. Morinello and Hawley voted no on the other eight budget bills.
"While the vast majority of budget bills are chock-full of reckless spending and radical policy initiatives, the Legislature and Judiciary bill has been a consistent and straightforward plan for funding the state workforce," Hawley told The Buffalo News. "I’ve voted in favor of this bill in the past and will continue to stand against the majority’s crusade to force their progressive policies into our state budget."
In voting against the public protection and general government bill, every Western New York Republican voted against a Hochul-driven proposal that their party generally supported: Changes to discovery, the pre-trial process in which prosecutors must disclose 21 types of evidence to the defense, in an effort to keep cases from being dismissed due to technicalities. The same bill included a change to allow the State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, which is down 4,500 correction officers, to hire new officers as young as 18.
In voting against the budget bill for health and mental hygiene, Republican lawmakers rejected the expansion of involuntary commitment to make it easier to send the mentally ill to hospitals against their will. The proposal, part of Hochul's response to violent incidents on New York City subways, was also generally popular with Republicans.
And in voting yes on every budget bill, every Western New York Democrat voted for every aspect of the spending plan regardless of whether they supported it. Many Democrats around the state had expressed concerns over the changes to discovery, which were favored by prosecutors, but still voted for the bill that contained it.
For decades, Republicans controlled the Senate and Democrats controlled the Assembly. In recent years, Democrats have controlled both houses. By and large, majorities drive the process and vote for the budget while members in the minority vote against it, said Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group and a longtime State Capitol watchdog.
As far back as he could recall, Horner said, the majorities in each house have placed unpopular or controversial proposals in the budget to provide cover for members who vote for it.
"It makes it easier for lawmakers to say, 'Well look, I didn't like this particular provision but I had to vote for the budget because I'm not going to shut down the government,'" Horner said.
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