On the latest episode of BPR, state Sen. Brian Kavanagh updated Vince DiMiceli and Anthony Rotunno on what it’s like passing a state budget in the middle of the night.
Kavanagh (D–Brooklyn Heights), who replaced Daniel Squadron in the seat late last year, complained that things sometimes seem rushed, with pages of legislation put in front of elected officials at the last minute.
“The budget bills were printed a very short time before the voting occurred,” he said. “So there was quite a scramble to figure out exactly what is going on in these bills.”
But one thing we know for sure is that the governor has approved a way to speed up the rebuilding of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway by allowing the so-called “design-build” process, which will let one contractor design and build the job — a move pushed for by Kavanagh and Heights Asssemblywoman Jo Anne Simon.
Kavanagh, making his first appearance on the show, also discussed so-called “pork” in the budget — funding for businesses and non-profits that some consider questionable, and even pondered one such plan for a golf tournament in Binghamton, claiming it wasn’t as important as funding for schools in Brooklyn.
“Pork is in the eye of the beholder,” he said.
All that and much, much more on Brooklyn Paper Radio — right now.
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