Cuomo attributes budget tardiness to pandemic related workarounds such as Zoom

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For the first time since March 24, Governor Andrew Cuomo took questions from the media on Monday afternoon in a limited conference call with reporters.

The governor spent part of the time calling the upcoming state budget likely the most complicated in his tenure and something that could set the course for the state the next decade.

The budget, now five days past its April 1 deadline, was stressed as less of a “financial document” and more of an “action plan” that paves the way for a recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic; the vaccination effort and social distancing have stood as a barrier to its completion, according to Cuomo.

“The budget is probably the most complicated, the most ambitious, and the hardest budget that we have done. This is a post-crisis budget,” Cuomo said. “Zoom is not as good as being in a room with 20 people, and being able to sit there for 10 hours and hash it out. So that has been a complication to it.”