Budgets in Albany, as in Julius Caesar's Gaul, are divided into thirds: hard dollars and cents, policy wrangling and political theater. Budgets are wrapped up only when all three elements are in alignment and when all three sides -- the governor, the Senate and the Assembly -- feel they can each emerge from deliberations with important wins.
Until some years ago, Albany was notorious for its late budgets, which were rooted in the failure by the three sides to reach a consensus in a state so diverse (along partisan, regional, racial, ethnic and ideological divides).
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