“Budget negotiations on how to spend your money – the taxpayers’ money, should be among the most open and transparent things we do in Albany, yet year after year it comes in the form of backroom deals and secret meetings, and that is unacceptable. If we have learned anything from the Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos oustings, it is that concentration of power, as with the three-men-in-a-room, is not conducive to integrity and morality and should be abolished.

“Let’s not forget that it was the Assembly Minority Conference who offered up 12 ethics reform proposals back in January only to have them voted down by liberal New York City politicians. Our citizens deserve better than bills passed at a moment’s notice in the middle of the night, and I will be exposing injustices like these as we move forward with budget talks.”