ALBANY – State Senator Stephen Saland of Poughkeepsie is a member of the minority Republican Party and Wednesday, he let the Democrats have it, calling the budget process “sheer lunacy.”

State leadership, all Democrats, have not come to terms on a budget, which was due March 31. So, Governor David Paterson has been proposing and getting passed short-term budget extenders.

Saland was highly critical of added taxes and reduced job incentives.

“The only thing that is going to help us get out of this recession is to stimulate, to incentivize the private sector, not to impair and impede, and what this seems to do is more of the same,” he said. “And as we get close to the end of this incremental budget adoption process that they have been agonizingly putting us through for the past 13 weeks, we are going to see resort to taxes, taxes, taxes.”

Saland isn’t alone in his assessment of the Albany gridlock. Even Hudson Valley Democratic lawmakers have been critical of the process and lack of outcome.