Hometown News: Another Closed-Door Budget in Albany

With the deadline looming to approve a budget, Albany returned to politics as usual last night with three men in a room. Governor David Paterson, state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith are working to close New York's 14-billion-dollar budget gap in the next two weeks. All the powerbrokers in the state capital are all Democrats, for the first time in four decades. Republican Dean Skelos criticized Senate Democrats for campaigning on a message of transparency, but participating in closed door negotiations. The Paterson Administration defends the closed door session as the best way to strike a deal by the April 1st deadline.