Despite promises that New Yorkers could expect a more transparent budget process, legislative leaders and Gov. David Paterson are crafting a new state spending plan in private.

Instead of holding discussions in public sessions, giving taxpayers and their representatives time to study specific proposals, legislative leaders are quietly making promises to special-interest groups as they decide how to spend the people's money.

And while bits and pieces of the budget are being announced as the process winds down, most of what we will learn when the budget is voted on will come as a complete surprise.

And it's not only the citizenry at large that's being left in the dark.

With the exception of specific budget elements worked out by committees they sit on, rank and file members of the state Assembly and Senate will remain unaware of most of the contents of the budget until after they are asked to vote on it in its entirety.

This is a bad way to form policy.

It's bad government and there's no excuse for it.

People need a chance to study the budget, investigate elements of it, and recommend changes to it. The current process does not allow for that.

Even in a state known far and wide for having a dysfunctional government, political observers are saying that the level of secrecy in this year's budget negotiations is worse than it's been in a decade or more.

The process by which our elected officials are deciding how to spend $124 billion - with a budget that increases spending 4.5 percent - should not be directed by a small group of powerful politicians and the lobbyists they are beholden to.

The state budget is a huge document and the specifics within it affect all New Yorkers.

It's a crime that only a handful of people will be aware of its contents before it's been signed into law.