Politics on the Hudson

In a statewide address that just wrapped up, Gov. Paterson called back the state Legislature to the Capitol on Aug. 19 to start tackling a $6.4 billion budget gap in the upcoming fiscal year that threatens to derail state services.

Paterson appeared live on news stations at 5:10 p.m. to alert New Yorkers that the state faces a whooping $26.2 billion budget gap over the next three years, a 22 percent increase over estimates that came less than 90 days ago.

In the 2009-10 fiscal year, which begins April 1, Paterson said the budget deficit has jumped to $6.4 billion, up $1.4 billion from previous projections.
“Our economic woes are so severe that I wanted to talk to you personally this evening on where we stand,” he said in the five-minute address. “The fact is we confront harsh times. Let me be honest, this situation will get worse before it gets better.”

Paterson called on lawmakers to come back to Albany to find remedies to the state’s fiscal problems that is also impacting the current 2008-09 fiscal year, which runs until March 31.

He made no specific recommendations on how to cut spending, but vowed that addressing job cuts and other measures will be on the table. He said he hoped the Legislature would also take up helping people pay for high home-heating costs this winter and also approve a school-property-tax cap, something the state Senate indicated Tuesday it will do Aug. 8.

“For too long we have done less with more and paid more for less,” Paterson said of state government. “Now government will do what families have done when their incomes have fallen: we will cut spending. Government will learn to do more with less.”