Paterson Wants Spending Cut, But Won’t Rule Out Tax Increase
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- September
- 9
Gov. Paterson hit a wide array of issues this morning at his first Crain’s Business Breakfast Forum in Manhattan, saying the state must trim spending to close its budget gaps and didn’t rule out tax increases to raise revenue.
“If we demonstrate fiscal responsibility and bring this budget down—maybe 75 percent of where it is,” he said, “if somebody wants to do a tax increase to finish it off, I don’t even think at that point the public would object to it, because at that point we would recognize that we have turned the corner.”
Paterson has never ruled out the possibility of a tax increase to close an estimated $24 billion budget gap over the next three years. But he has indicated it would a last resort.
“I’m not ruling out taxes; I never have,” he said. “What I’m saying is that if that’s the first solution, then we are continuing the addiction … The first solution has to be to cut spending.”
He chided former Gov. George Pataki, referring to him as Gov. Pa-Tax-i, saying Pataki pledged not to raise taxes but the state had to do so after the 9/11 attacks.
Paterson also backtracked from his comments yesterday that some lawmakers are “bloodsuckers” who like Count Dracula listen to the concerns of groups during the day and then vote against them at night.
“I don’t think my colleagues are bloodsuckers,” he said. “What I do think is that unfortunately if we adopted the right kind of campaign finance and we started to take a look at the amount of spending as it impacts on the operation of government, that legislators will be empowered to see groups based on the context of their information and not the resources that they’re spending in Albany.”
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 at 2:56 pm by Joseph Spector.
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