Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Friday marks the deadline for the submission of the New York State budget to be approved, but it is very likely that the budget is going to be missed.
For the people of Western New York, one proposal that is a hot topic for this year's State budget is the new stadium deal for the Buffalo Bills.
The hope had been for weeks that a deal for a new Bills stadium would be struck in time for the state budget to be passed.
That agreement of a deal was finalized on Monday, as Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a $600 million proposal in the State budget to go towards the construction of a new stadium for the Bills in Orchard Park. That $600 million is the State's share of publicly financed money, with another $250 million set to come from Erie County.
With the State expected to miss the deadline for the budget to be submitted, however, where does the Bills stadium deal sit with the budget? As it turns out, the State does not have much to present to the Legislature, according to Senator Rob Ortt.
"There's not one budget bill, to be clear. They haven't produced one budget bill," Ortt said on Friday at an event on Main Street in Buffalo. "Whether it's education funding; I think the only bill that they produced is debt service, the bill to pay the bills that we keep incurring and growing. So the credit card bill, that keeps growing, we got to pay that, obviously. That was put forward this week. That's the only budget bill that has been put in print. So I haven't seen any budget bill."
With the State likely to miss Friday's budget deadline, should that lead Bills fans to worry about the potential of the stadium deal not being passed?
"Maybe by definition Bills fans are always nervous, right? You know, we're always a little bit nervous until it's done. Let's just hope we don't have a repeat of 13 seconds. Let's hope we get this done," Ortt said. "I'm optimistic. By the way, there's other colleagues of mine here in Western New York - Senator [George] Borrello, Senator [Pat] Gallivan, Senator [Ed] Rath that are supportive of keeping the Bills here. So we're certainly doing our part from our vantage point to help this deal. Hopefully this deal gets done."
Meanwhile, Senator Ortt and other members of the Republican Party of New York have openly spoken out about Gov. Hochul and her administration's actions since she took over office for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo back in August.
Ortt worries about how well Hochul has handled to situation with the Bills stadium deal, and how his colleagues Downstate view this proposal in an effort to keep the Bills in Buffalo for the long-term. The Senator has been very open about his support to keep the team in Western New York, but worries about the Governor's ability to get this deal over the goal line.
"Many of my colleagues outside have concerns, and this is the Governor's deal. According to even people I've talked to on the inside, they're letting her handle it. She's going to get this done, so she's got to do it. Right now, I'm optimistic, but there's real concerns and red flags that I see, as far as this deal getting done. And what is she going to have to trade? What is she going to have to do to get it done? What is going to fall off the table? Is bail going to fall off the table? There's a lot of other issues facing New Yorkers that I worry are going to become a victim to get this deal done because she's handled it poorly."
You can listen to more of Ortt's comments on the Bills stadium deal below:
