Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver isn’t taking too kindly to Gov. David Paterson’s suggestions that the Legislature is to blame for the extremely. slow. budget. negotiations.

NY1′s Erin Billups caught up with Silver outside his office at the rear of the Assembly chamber this afternoon. The speaker said his house will pass the second round of bare bones budget extenders sent up by the governor because “we can’t afford to allow hospitals to lose their Medicaid payments and other people to not get paid; plain and simple.”

Silver insisted progress is being made on the budget – “Very slowly, but we’re moving,” he said. “It’s slow. These are difficult times.” He said the Senate and Assembly have achieved about $6 billion in savings between cuts and revenues, which puts them about $3.2 billion apart.

And that, he said, is without borrowing.

That’s about the same place the two sides were as of April 9, according to CapCon’s Jimmy Vielkind, so it’s kind of hard to see where progress is actually being made here.

Nevertheless, Silver said Paterson’s characterization of the Senate-Assembly budget stalemate is “inaccurate,” adding:

“If he would only talk to his budget director and get the story on what was originally presented and where we are today, I think those number indicate that we’ve cut more.”

Asked by Billups if it’s possible the legislative leaders might heed Paterson’s call to keep their members in Albany through the end of the week in hopes of landing a deal, Silver replied:

“It’s possible. But certainly if he’s in Cortland…The Legislature is here. So, you know, we have been doing our work. I suggest that we’re been here more than the governor.”

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