Passing the budget buck to towns

Ulster County legislator Mike Madsen is steamed about the state legislature's proposed budget cuts to programs that counties and towns are mandated by law to run. Specifically, Safety Net:

Both the Assembly and Senate plan to cut $100 million in this area state wide. One house offers a straight cut, the other aims to use stimulus funding for one year before doing the same. Both proposals will have a tremendous impact on the county taxpayers across the state. More so for taxpayers in Kingston and Wawarsing because of our Safety Net burden structure...

...These programs are mandated. MANDATED! We must fulfill these duties.

Speaking of. Paterson told legislators this morning: There'd better be a state budget by June 28, or else.