ALBANY, N.Y. -- "We did not sit and negotiate this budget. We did not do it," said Governor David Paterson.
And so Governor Paterson's emergency session to address dangerously widening deficits ended in failure and partisan bickering.
"You really brought us nothing," Paterson said. "You don't have anything on paper to show. You have nothing. And you're going to come in here and Mr. Leader, with all do respect, I'm still waiting on your solution to this problem. Maybe if I'd heard that particularly on the education one, we might be able to adjust the education cuts so we don't do them in the middle of the year. But we have absolutely nothing to work with except my proposal."
It was a special session...sort of. Governor David Paterson called the legislature back to Albany to cut $2 billion from this year's budget. Given the controversy that always comes with scaling back on spending, it was never considered an easy task. But according to the Governor and several state leaders, it was a necessary one. So why was there no agreement? Josh Robin has more on why the special session turned into a leaders meeting that ended with nothing.
As New York climbs deeper into its financial hole, the legislature will likely return in the New Year, when the state’s political dynamic could be very different. Paterson largely blamed the impasse on Republican State Senate Majority Dean Skelos. He led the opposition to Paterson’s proposals, which struck hard at the education and health care interests who have bankrolled GOP campaigns.
"I feel relieved in the sense that I do think that the approach the governor proposed was not the appropriate one," said Geri Palast of Campaign for Fiscal Equity.
But come January, democrats may rule statewide. Still, as much as there were winners, the consensus was Skelos was it. The Governor was forced to heed his demand that any additional cuts be presented along with next year's budget. And under shocking attack, the governor seemed to shrink as chief executive.
"The governor has now agreed that the process should be close out this year's deficit, which has been my position," said Skelos.
At the end, though, the men embraced, even as the state's business left unattended.
And the Governor's next bid for money takes him to the nation's capital for the second time in a month. After first saying the state needed to get its own fiscal house in order, he's returning to Washington, joining other distressed states in a quest for help.