This is a transcript of what Gov. David Paterson said in his five-minute address. It took five minutes to recite the 772 words.

My fellow New Yorkers,

Our state now faces increasingly harsh economic times. When I travel across the State I see communities suffering. Everywhere I go I meet people who are losing their jobs and their homes. I meet families forced to pay more for gasoline and for food, while their paychecks stay the same. Next winter some of these families will have to choose between heating their homes and feeding their children. The rising costs of health care mean that they can’t afford to get sick. The rising costs of education mean that parents can no longer prepare for their children to be in the work force. The damage on Wall Street is affecting all of our communities and its effects on our New York State’s finances are devastating.

When I took office, I was apprised that the New York State budget deficit for next year was $5 billion. I immediately ordered cuts to state spending, but the situation has gotten worse. Tomorrow I will submit a budget plan that places our deficit for next year at $6.4 billion – that is $1.4 billion higher than it was just a few short months ago. How could this happen? It’s simple. Costs are rising steadily, revenues are dropping dramatically.

In the beginning of May, our budget director projected our New York State deficit over the next three years at $21.5 billion – that was a record. But things have changed. That number has now erupted to $26.2 billion – a staggering 22 percent increase in less than 90 days. Read more of this entry »

   Following Gov. David Paterson’s televised address on New York State’s bleak fiscal outlook, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said his members are ready to help get New York’s financial house in order. However, it’s important not to “backpedal” on progress that has been made in providing additional money for pre-kindergarten classes, class-size reduction, nursing home and home-care services, and other programs and services, he said.  

   “Our answer is that middle class families and our working poor must not be forced to bear the brunt of such cuts. I and my Assembly colleagues believe that this state must not backpedal on the important progress we have made for the hardworking families of this state,” Silver said in a statement.

   Silver said he would support a school property-tax cap only if it doesn’t reduce funding for education and be based on homeowners’ ability to pay. The governor and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, support a cap, and the Senate is returning to Albany next month to vote on the issue.

Here’s some of the comments coming in from Gov. Paterson’s address this evening.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County: “While we agree that the economy is weakening and state government must rise up to meet this challenge as part of next year’s budget, property taxpayers are facing a crisis right now. Earlier today, I notified members of the Senate that we will be returning to Albany on August 8th to convene a special session to enact the Governor’s property tax cap and pass legislation to reduce costs for schools and ensure adequate resources for students.”

Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, Democrat: “The Governor plans to turn this around. He’s set a course toward financial stability. It’s not an easy course. There will be pain and it will take time. It took us years to get here and it will take us years to get back. Delay only increases the degree of difficulty.”

Assemblyman James Tedisco, R-Schenectady: “Now that the Governor has brought this fiscal crisis to the public’s attention, the hard work – and the tough choices – must begin. More than ever, we need this Governor to lead and make the tough choices. If making those choices and standing up to the special interests results in his being a one-term Governor, then he would likely go down in history as the person who righted New York’s ship of state and we would owe him a debt of gratitude.”

Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli will join Rep. Steve Israel and state Democratic chairwoman June O’Neill in raising money Aug. 8 for the Monroe County Democratic Committee at a “Democratic Rally and BBQ” in Webster.

DiNapoli has generally stayed clear of the political fundraising world, only starting raising money for his own re-election in 2010 in June. Yet DiNapoli will likely be out helping Democrats in their bid to take control of the state Senate in November.

Speaking of the Senate, the fundraiser is happening the same day they are expected back in Albany to pass a property-tax cap.

The event, which costs $8, will feature the party’s congressional candidates and state Senate candidates.

For E.J. McMahon, director of the conservative Empire Center for New York State Policy at the Manhattan Institute, state government’s current fiscal predicament is reminiscent of 2002 and the late 1980s/early 1990s. But overspending, rather than a poor economy, bears the most blame, he said.

In the late 80s and early 90s, there was “an enormous and completely unsustainable run up in state spending,” McMahon said on an Albany radio show today. “At the same time, there was a tremendous burst of tax revenues fed by a boom on Wall Street. And there was also a real estate bubble, which burst.”

The state funds portion of the budget has grown about 75 percent in the last 10 years, and by about 45 percent in the last five, McMahon said.

“And what we need to do now is undo that (excessive spending), because the $5 billion budget gap that was being projected in May, which the governor no doubt will announce today is worse, that gap was entirely due, almost entirely due, to projected increases in base-line spending,” he said. Read more of this entry »

Virgin Atlantic has agreed to offer a sampling of New York state wines at its London Heathrow Clubhouse through Aug. 31, as part of the relaunched “I Love New York” campaign, state officials said.

The campaign has also signed up Chef David Bouley to prepare a six-course dinner later this month at his test kitchen in Manhattan with wines from the Finger Lakes.

Long Island wines will also be featured at a two-day wine symposium at Stony Brook University this summer.