Politics on the Hudson

   Following yesterday’s news that New York is facing a $2.1 billion budget gap, Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb, R-Canandaigua, is renewing his call for a meeting with Gov. David Paterson and other leaders of the Senate and Assembly. The last leaders’ meeting was 58 days ago, Kolb said in a statement.

   “As New York’s economy continues its alarming downward spiral, we cannot afford to wait until September, as the governor suggested yesterday, to outline and enact specific cost reductions for achieving the savings needed to bring New York’s budget into balance,” Kolb said.

   “The expanding budget deficit projections, declining state revenues, and 854,200 unemployed New Yorkers, the most since 1976, should serve as impetus for Governor Paterson to immediately convene a public leaders’ meeting as I have continually called for,” he said.

   In breaking the news of the budget deficit yesterday, the governor said he and Richard Ravitch, lieutenant governor, would be drafting a proposal on what cuts to make. It will be finished in September, and Paterson plans to call lawmakers into a special session to vote on the plan.

   Here’s a response from Paterson spokesman Morgan Hook:
   “Governor Paterson is working with Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch to develop an Economic and Fiscal Recovery Plan that will eliminate the current-year budget deficit and improve the State’s long-term fiscal health. Governor Paterson welcomes Minority Leader Kolb’s suggestions and looks forward to working with the leaders of the Legislature throughout this process.”

   Left unchecked, the state budget deficit will grow to $4.6 billion in 2010-11, $13.3 billion in 2011-12 and $18.2 billion in 2012-13, according to the state Division of Budget.