New York State Assemblyman Marc Herbst recently joined his assembly Republican colleagues as they kicked off a statewide petition drive and a series of public forums to build grassroots support for their plan to assure on-time adoption of the state budget.

"While many in Albany have become comfortable with the streak of 17 consecutive late budgets, I'm not. Now is the time to dramatically reform our state's out-of-date budget process," said Herbst. "That is why I have joined my colleagues to launch this petition drive."

According to Herbst, the Assembly Republican budget reform plan would fix the historically flawed budget adoption process, assure on-time adoption of the state budget and open the entire process to public scrutiny, permanently ending the "three men in a room" practice whereby the budget is determined solely by the governor, Senate majority leader and assembly speaker. Elements of the Assembly Republican proposal are:

Permanently end the so-called "three men in a room" practice by opening up the process to press and public scrutiny and setting strict timelines, reporting and meeting requirements for the budget conference committee, including public meetings and written reports. No later than March 15, both houses would appoint members of budget conference committees and subcommittees and begin the process of finalizing the budget in time for the April 1 deadline.

- Establish a binding revenue estimate by requiring the comptroller to provide a preliminary economic revenue forecast on or before March 1. If an agreement on the economy and revenues was not reached by the statutory deadline of March 10, the comptroller would establish a binding revenue number on March 11 that would be the final revenue number upon which the budget would be based.

- Prohibit the legislature from considering non-budget bills after April 1 until a budget is adopted.

- Implement a fail-safe mechanism through a constitutional amendment mandating the use of the prior fiscal year's state budget if no budget is agreed to within 60 days of the April 1 deadline. The governor would be granted additional powers to control spending and make adjustments for entitlements and revenue shortfalls.

- Enact a sunshine requirement requiring a plain-language summary of the final budget to be prepared by the state division of the budget and made available to the legislature and the public at least 48 hours prior to passage of the budget.

"New Yorkers can no longer afford late budgets that compromise our schools, infrastructure improvements or our state's ability to effectively deal with pressing issues," said Herbst. "I encourage all residents to sign these petitions and send the word to the leadership in Albany that enough is enough."

Contact Assemblyman Herbst's office for more information on this petition drive at 938-3168.