Politics on the Hudson

Gov. David Paterson warned today that the Obama administration’s decision to cut pay to executives at companies who received federal bailout money will be a loss of $1 billion to New York’s revenue base.

“I’m not going to defend the people who run these companies,” Paterson said this morning on John Gambling radio show this morning. “They frittered a lot of money away in reckless schemes. But the reality is that in the end, New York just lost $1 billion because of that act.”

Paterson later put out a statement that expressed the same concerns, saying “While I applaud reports that the Obama Administration is preparing to take steps to limit executive compensation for some of New York’s highest earners, it is not good news for New York’s tax revenue.”

“I share in the populist rage over these CEOs raking in millions while their companies teeter on the brink of insolvency but for a federal bailout. They clearly have not earned their paychecks. However, the reported action also is the latest evidence that New York State can no longer rely so heavily on Wall Street.”

Paterson used the Obama administration’s decision as another example of why state lawmakers can’t rely on a Wall Street recovery to help bail New York out if its fiscal woes.

“It’s like telling your spouse, hey listen, I know we have a lot of bills, but I have eight lottery tickets in, let’s see what happens,” Paterson explained. “You cannot budget that way.”

He went on to say that doing so over the years “disrespected the people who kindly put us in office, although if they really thought about what they were doing they might have reconsidered.”