The New York Times reports -”Concluding the most secretive budget negotiations in recent memory, Gov. David A. Paterson and leaders of the Legislature outlined a $131.8 billion agreement on Sunday that would close the state’s gaping deficit with billions of dollars in new taxes, financing from the federal stimulus and a substantial slowdown in the growth of health care spending.

The final days of negotiations between Mr. Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm A. Smith have been conducted under a veil of secrecy so profound that even well-seasoned Albany cynics were taken aback.

And despite the enormous fiscal pressure the state faces, the budget contains $170 million in financing for pet projects — an amount unchanged from last year — suggesting that Albany’s appetite for with what critics call pork-barrel spending appeared to be undiminished. Listed in the budget were grants to gun clubs, an upstate museum dedicated to bricks and brick-making, the Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta and an organization known as the Urban Yoga Foundation.

With the stimulus money and other federal grants, total spending would rise over the next year by $10.5 billion, or 8.7 percent, a major expansion, though the state’s direct spending, which excludes federal funds, would rise by about $3.3 billion, higher than the rate of inflation. Over all, New York received $7.2 billion in federal stimulus money for the next fiscal year, some of it directly allocated to programs like unemployment insurance and food stamps.

Factoring in the elimination of $1.5 billion in property tax rebates, New Yorkers will pay around $7 billion in new or increased taxes and fees next year — the price, officials said, of closing a budget gap of more than $16 billion.”

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Kenneth Adams, president and CEO of the Business Council told the Times,”It is impossible to view this budget as a path to economic recovery. Businesses and jobs will hasten their departure from the state, and how can you blame them? Albany treats them with disdain.”