Four min. budget session cost $100,000

ALBANY, N.Y. (WIVB) - What happens if you call a special session of the state legislature, and you can't get enough senators to show up? The unfinished business of the New York budget remains undone.

State lawmakers say they didn't know what bills would be introduced for a vote at Wednesday's special session. It turns out they never saw any bills. The session ended within four minutes.

Sen. Michael Ranzenhofer said, "You feel like pulling your hair out. It's just incredibly wasteful."

The state budget remains in limbo. Controversial bills are still under consideration. Allowing wine sales in grocery stores is one of them.

"What does wine in grocery stores do for anybody? It doesn't create any new jobs. As a matter of fact, it cost jobs because it's gonna put liquor stores out of business," argued Sen. Bill Stachowski.

Stachowski says he won't vote on any revenue bill unless his colleagues approve UB's 2020 Plan. That would create a private/public partnership and allow the university to raise tuition.

Stachowski said, "I'm not trying to corner anybody. I'm trying to get all three parties to negotiate to get something done so that the university system can move forward."

Governor David Paterson is still moving forward with his proposal for a sugar tax. Some lawmakers say they'll refuse to approve any tax hikes. Others will consider it.

"I would prefer not to do them, but since we have a $9 billion hole, there's probably some kind of revenue we're gonna have to raise," explained Stachowski.

State legislators are hearing from their constituents. Sen. Antoine Thompson heard from a college student on Tuesday.

Sen. Thompson said, "She received a letter from Canisius College saying that they could not finalize her bill because the state budget had not been passed."

Sen. Thompson tells News 4 that some organizations are going out of business and that contractors and vendors are still not getting paid since there is no final budget. Even though nothing got done Wednesday night, the special session comes at a cost of $100,000 to taxpayers. Another special session was scheduled for 10 a.m. on Thursday, and that will cost another $100,000.