By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CITY HALL — A government shutdown that would have closed courtrooms and frozen unemployment payments was narrowly averted Monday evening when the State Senate passed an emergency budget extension bill Monday by a vote of 34 to 27.
The bill will keep the state government afloat another week, through June 20, as lawmakers continue to try to hammer out a budget that is already two and half months overdue.
Over the weekend, some had begun to fear that the measure might not pass, thanks to more than $300 million in cuts that were fiercely opposed by some Democratic leaders, including Bronx Democrat Ruben Diaz Sr.
“I’m not voting to cut no more to the needy and to the poor,” the senator told reporters in defending his vote Monday, the Daily News said.
State agencies, from the state court to the State Department of Labor, had begun to develop contingency plans in case they had to close their doors, disrupting the distribution of everything from lottery tickets to food stamps.
But in the end, the measure passed thanks in part to Republicans who crossed the aisle to get the bill passed.
“Republicans will not let the Democrats shut down state government," Minority leader Dean Skelos said in a statement before the vote Monday. "As long as the bill that comes before the Senate does not include new taxes, fees or borrowing, we will assure that government will continue to function,” he said.
Even before they had seen the final version of the bill, most lawmakers seemed confident it would pass in some form.
"When we get it, we expect to pass it," Senate Democratic Majority spokesman Austin Shafran said while the chamber awaited the final draft of legislation from the governor's office.
At a press conference outside the GOP conference chamber before the vote began, Republican Senators Hugh Farley and Roy McDonald told reporters they would likely vote in favor of the extender bill, the Albany Times Union reported.
“This is a devastating, terrible process that is happening,” Farley said. “We have tens of thousands of state workers and just cannot allow government to shut down; it would be a calamity for this state.”
If the government coffers had closed, state services across the board would have ground to a halt, according to State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's office and state agencies.
State programs would likely have been temporarily suspended, and 153,000 state employees would not have been paid on June 23. Unemployment and other benefits, which average $190 million a week, would not have been paid, and welfare and food stamp distribution would have been frozen.
Courts, the state lottery, and the Department of Motor Vehicle would have been affected as well.
The state currently faces a whopping $9.2 billion budget gap, and lawmakers remain deeply divided over how to bridge the gulf.
Various options are on the table, including borrowing plans and a proposal to reduce government payments to the state pension fund.
