Jul 31, 2008 8:13 am US/Eastern
Gov. Paterson Lays Out Plan To Cut State Spending
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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The other shoe dropped Wednesday, as Governor Paterson began laying out his plan to cut state spending and get New York out of a budget crisis that shows no signs of abating.
AP
The other shoe dropped Wednesday, as Governor Paterson began laying out his plan to cut state spending and get New York out of a budget crisis that shows no signs of abating.
"We've got to wake up New York for the possibility that we are going to feel some pain, but the sooner that we address it, the sooner we can recover from it," Paterson said.
For the second day in a row, Paterson put New Yorkers and, more importantly, members of legislature on alert.
"I want to hear self-sacrifice and self-awareness here," Paterson said.
Paterson is demanding that the legislature come up with $600 million in budget savings by August 19th, and he's making cuts too.
Paterson announced plans to cut $630 million from the parts of the government that he controls.
The governor said Wednesday that he will order another round of cuts from state agencies – 7 percent on top of the 3.35 percent cut he imposed earlier this year.
There will also be an immediate hiring freeze, and the possibility of layoffs looms.
Thankfully, there have been no calls for tax increases, although the democratic assembly said it wants to tax the rich.
"The reason that I'm avoiding taxes is because I think taxes are addictive and I think what happens when you start taxing, people start thinking of ways to spend the money," Paterson said.
Some in political circles thought that the governor was grandstanding with an eye towards his political future and fiscal watchdogs said he still hasn't tackled the big spending areas: education and health care.
"He has to be really like Willy Sutton, and go to the places where the bulk of the spending is," Nicole Gelinas, of the Manhattan Institute, said.
"I think he needs to look at other ways to cut, actually not [cut] jobs," Jessica Romm, of Manhattan, said.
Those cuts are going to hurt the average person and I think the millionaires who [are] supporting the building boom around here should be paying, not us ordinary citizens," Eric Poulos, of the Park Slope section of Brooklyn, said.
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