This past week, the state Legislature had a major breakthrough after members of a joint Senate-Assembly conference committee agreed on a plan that would enact meaningful budget reform. The agreement comes as New York enters its 20th consecutive year without a state budget in place by the April 1 constitutional deadline.

The plan, which was unanimously adopted by the 10-member committee, incorporates several aspects of the long-standing budget reform proposal that is part of the Assembly Republican legislative platform. Both plans contain initiatives that would assure on-time adoption of the budget, open up the process to more public scrutiny, and enact the prior year's budget if no new budget has been passed by the deadline.

The joint Senate-Assembly conference committee budget reform plan calls for:

Putting the previous year's budget in place if no agreement has been reached by the statutory deadline;

Requiring the governor to submit an executive budget by January 15, or February 1 in gubernatorial election years;

Providing 21 days for the governor to amend the executive budget, rather than the current 30;

Creating additional reserve funds, beyond the Tax Stabilization Reserve Fund (TSRF), for: contingency reserve and ensuing school aid payments. All reserve funds would be subject to strict repayment provisions of TSRF, and all reserve funds would be subject to strict statutory change requirement of TSRF;

Moving the start of the fiscal year from April 1 to May 1;

Requiring approval of state aid for schools two years at a time, rather than one;

Moving health care spending under the Health Care Reform Act "on budget;"

Creating an independent budget office to forecast revenues and recommend spending options;

Providing a three-year financial plan with additional details;

Additional financial plan reporting for: financial plan cash flow, personnel, technology purchases, journal voucher transactions, and disbursement of lump sums;

Agency budget requests would be made available to the public at the time of executive budget hearings.

Current services budget submitted with executive budget.