While Governor Paterson is busy spewing rightwing BS, the State Legislature is getting ready to deal with the budget gap for the current fiscal year. The bad news for this year isn't even close to budget deficit this year so there isn't as much radical change needed, but that does not mean Paterson will not protest what the Legislature is up to this week.
From PressConnects:
As much as the Governor wants to slash and burn programs throughout the budget, the Assembly and Senate refuse to do so, at least for right now. What they need to do is this, and listen to the experts, not David Paterson.Democratic lawmakers in the Assembly and Senate majorities indicated such cuts are unlikely and they will look instead to a variety of one-shot budget measures, such as money saved through hiring freezes or sweeping unspent money from state agencies.
Lawmakers said major cuts are unlikely because the state is in line for billions of dollars from the federal stimulus package. They could vote on closing the current year's budget gap as soon as today.
Gov. David Paterson has warned lawmakers to not rely on the federal aid to bail out the state from its current or an estimated $13.7 billion gap in the 2009-10 fiscal year, which starts April 1.
The Governor is clearly and quickly losing a lot of political capital and sadly, it is all his doing. He tried to take on too many different interests all at once without any sacrifice from the upper echelons of society and as a result, everyone else got together to pile on and attack his proposed budget cuts. Coupled with a lack of discipline and coherent strategy to stay on message, his relevancy in this process is fading fast.
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