SUBSCRIBEPaterson’s fiscal minimalism
Governor Paterson today announced that he was ordering state agencies to cut their budgets by $500 million to help in dealing with a current-year state deficit of between $2.1 billion (the official forecast as of late July) and $3 billion (the governor’s own latest estimate).
The cuts will come out of “non-personal service” spending–stuff like travel, printing and consulting contracts, Paterson’s office said.
The governor acknowledged that today’s action–closing between one-fifth and one-quarter of the deficit–represents just “a first step” towards balancing the budget for the fiscal year ending March 31. Incredibly, he still won’t outline any further steps. Instead, he repeated his mantra about “working cooperatively with the Legislature to enact additional savings.”
Unfortunately, far from raising confidence that the governor is finally getting on the case, today’s announcement only shines a brighter spotlight on Paterson’s continuing inability or unwillingness to produce a plan of action for addressing a growing problem.
Every public official in New York State should be required to read \Atlas Shrugged\.
Comment by Mike — October 7, 2009 @ 1:02 pm
[...] E.J. noted earlier this week, Gov. Paterson is taking a “minimalist” approach to the $2.1 - 3 [...]
Pingback by NY Fiscal Watch — October 9, 2009 @ 2:39 pm
[...] DOB’s July update had projected that all-funds tax revenues for the first six months of fiscal 2009-10 would come in 13.5 percent lower than the same period in fiscal 2008-09. Actual first-half revenues have fallen 16.7 percent below last year’s level, which translates into an additional shortfall of $962 million. This explains why Governor Paterson had has been saying that the current year’s budget deficit has grown to $3 billion from the $2.1 billion projected in July. It doesn’t explain why the governor has yet to propose a detailed plan for closing the deficit, other than announcing some administrative budget cuts that will be barely sufficient to cover the tax shortfall for Septem…. [...]
Pingback by NY Fiscal Watch — October 12, 2009 @ 2:21 pm