The State Senate, lead by Senator Dean Skelos, released their budget today. As Michael Johnson at YNN's State of Politics Blog points out, the Senate and Assembly are coming up with very different figures for the current year budget.

[T]hey are projecting that all funds revenue will be $286 million higher than Cuomo’s budget division projects. The Assembly has predicted that revenue will be $187 million worse than the Governor’s forecast – putting the two chambers more than $450 million apart heading into next year’s budget negotiations.

He goes on to point out that the big underlying assumption of these numbers are arguments for and against the millionaires' tax. For the Assembly, a shortfall makes the case that now is not the time to be giving tax breaks. For the Senate, a better-than-expected tax situation makes the exact opposite case--that targeting upper-income earners now is both unneeded and irresponsible.

What nobody is arguing, however, is that next year's budget gap is in the $3 billion range.