There appears to be a blame game happening in Albany, and thousands of state workers are caught in the middle.
Approximately 120,000 employees on the administration payroll weren’t paid on April 1.
According to the N.Y.S. Comptroller’s office, it can’t make payments in a new fiscal year until the state’s budget is passed, and in a letter dated December 6th 2019, it asked the state’s budget director to address the issue “to avoid any inadvertent financial harm to employees.”
Still, the state’s Division of Budget said the legislature and the governor aren’t to blame. “The bottom line is there is question that there is full legal authority to make the payments. As a result of management and technical deficiencies in the Office of the State Comptroller’s systems, they were unable to process payments properly. While a technical fix was available, the Comptroller’s office made the decision to delay payments,” said Freeman Klopott, a spokesman for the New York State Division of the Budget.
State agencies like the Department of Labor, judges and staff, and legislative employees were all scheduled to get paid.
Stephanie Norrod, of Jamestown, is one of the state workers who expected a paycheck Wednesday that never came. She said it’s tough because they’re living paycheck to paycheck. “It’s kind of our society you know? Paycheck to paycheck. I consider myself lucky, luckier than others because we are a two earner household.”
Checks will be issued once the budget is passed and signed by the governor.
