The Big Disconnect: Governor Paterson and the legislature

I just spoke with two North Country lawmakers who were in Albany for Governor Paterson’s speech.

Assemblywoman Janet Duprey and state Senator Betty Little, both Republicans, offered qualified praise for the address, which drew more applause from GOP lawmakers than Democrats.

But when it came to the massive $8 billion dollar budget deficit, both women downplayed the severity of cuts to North Country jobs and institutions.

Duprey suggested that most of the budget cuts should be made downstate.

Little acknowledged the likelihood of cuts to public schools and local government subsidies.

But she suggested that the deficit could be narrowed largely by eliminating public land purchases and eliminating wasteful state bureaucracy.

And she even proposed cutting taxes, a move that would boost the deficit even more, or require deeper spending cuts.

Both indicated that the battle for funds between upstate and downstate communities will continue.

Put bluntly, someone is wrong here.

If the North Country’s delegation is right, we can keep on doing pretty much what we’re doing.

That means public-sector jobs — paid for in large measure by taxpayers downstate — will continue as the foundation of our region’s economy.

Five years from now, we’ll still have roughly the same number of school teachers, state troopers, snow plow drivers, DOT crews, etc.

Or the Governor is right and this is a ‘winter of reckoning.’

If so, the bill for all those jobs and services is just too high. His message: We can’t afford it. The pain will be severe.

The pivot point for this debate will be the deficit number itself. If the economy perks up and that $8 billion gap shrinks significantly, the pressure will be off.

Otherwise, it’s hard to see how the math works for business as usual.