Slow start to budget crunch time in Albany

You wouldn’t know the state budget is due in 10 days, from Monday’s quiet legislative session.

With the March 31 deadline creeping closer, it was business as usual at the Capitol. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, state Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie once again did not convene for a closed-door leaders meeting – usually a common occurrence this late in March. It is unclear whether there have been any such meetings yet.

On “Capitol Pressroom,” state Senate Finance Committee Chairwoman Catherine Young defended the state budget process as “transparent.”

“We’re doing conference committees and we’re doing things in public and the leaders are putting out their priorities,” Young said on the radio show. “Obviously they’re not secret. We’ve been very vocal about what we want to achieve in this budget process.”

State Senate Deputy Majority Leader John DeFrancisco rushed by reporters without answering questions to start the day’s session 30 minutes late. The state Senate Republicans conferenced for about an hour and a half.

The biggest news of the day came not from the Legislature, but from the announcement that daily fantasy sports websites DraftKings and FanDuel will stop running paid contests in New York as part of a settlement with state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office.

State Sen. John Bonacic, chairman of the Senate’s Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee, said there’s a “strong possibility” legislation to regulate fantasy sports will be included in the budget.

“I think the advocates for fantasy sports believe that this Legislature can monitor it, regulate it and tax it and have the consumer protections done either in the budget, or probably by the budget,” Bonacic said, adding the governor has been “pretty quiet” on the issue.

“Some of his front people were asking questions on how much revenue this could bring the state and I don’t have an exact answer for you today, but I will have a better answer for you tomorrow,” he said.