Taxes, marijuana part of 3-way budget negotiation

[hrmjustin]

AP

ALBANY, N.Y. — The budget plan advanced Friday by New York's Senate set the stage for a complex two-week negotiation with the governor and Assembly on tax cuts, campaign finance reform, legalizing medical marijuana and other issues.

Talks beginning Monday are intended to resolve differences in their budgets to pass one plan for spending more than $142 billion. The state's new fiscal year starts April 1.

"I call them the Christmas wish list of budget making because the numbers don't have to add up and they just put in everything that they want," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a radio interview Friday. He said this year's biggest issue is tax cuts, noting that the Senate — unlike the Assembly and him — does not include a renter's tax cut for low-income city residents. He called that "unfair" and "a non-starter."

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