We met with Senate and House leaders, and they felt they could cure it during the session. I'm very confident [schools] will be able to use co-teaching.

The idea that House and Senate GOP leaders would write two tax reconciliation numbers in the budget -- $550 billion for the House and $350 billion for the Senate -- is not only a cry of desperation by our Republican friends, but also an outrage and a farce!

The Senate and the House are at loggerheads, and it would be virtually impossible for the leaders of those two houses to be close friends under those circumstances. It would lead to suspicions from their respective caucuses.

Governor Pataki, Senate Minority Leader David Paterson and the other state leaders on both sides of the aisle who are fighting to protect these valuable initiatives deserve great credit. The veto is the right thing to do, and we urge lawmakers to let it stand.

I was confident I would be in the front two rows. But then in the qualifying session the car was just fantastic.

We have tremendous concerns in three areas: transportation, because of rising fuel costs; utilities, because of rising fuel costs; and increases in health care costs. We could have given teachers a 7 percent pay raise instead of taking those things away. We could have hired more of those teachers at a higher salary.