Politics on the Hudson

The Wall Street meltdown will cost New York 225,000 jobs and $6.5 billion in tax revenue, Comptroller Thomas Dinapoli estimated in a report to be released later today.

His assessment is the bleakest yet of the collapse of the state’s most important industry. Other observers have noted that what might make this downturn more serious than those in the last several decades is that it’s unclear the financial sector will snap back and climb to even greater heights, which has been the pattern since World War II.

In terms of tax revenues, the collapse is even more damaging to the state than to New York City, since the state depends more on income-tax revenue than the city does.

Gov. David Paterson is slated to spell out his plans to deal with the disaster when he presents his new budget plan to the Legislature on Dec. 16.