Paterson Pledges To Do More For Disabled
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- September
- 8
Gov. Paterson, New York’s first blind governor, told disability-rights advocates in Albany today that he will better focus on the needs of special-interest groups who don’t always have millions of dollars to pour into advocacy efforts.
He said he had a revelation during the one-day special session of the state Legislature on Aug. 19. In addition to all the powerful special interests lobbying the state to maintain funding levels, there was a loud protest outside his office from disability-rights groups.
He admitted that he hadn’t initially thought about the less powerful groups as he sought to cut $600 million from the current 2008-09 budget. Later that day, he invited the groups’ leaders to meet with him in his office.
“It had really never hit me before,” he said. “You know these ads that special interests were talknig about our budget cuts made it appear that they were speaking for all those in the state that don’t have a voice. When in fact, they were speaking for themselves, their members and to their issues.”
Paterson drew huge applause from the group, who have looked to him to forward disability rights in the state.
Paterson even took a shot at lawmakers, referring to some of them as “bloodsuckers” because when he was a legislator he said some of his colleagues would act like they cared about groups’ causes yet dismiss them after the day was over.
“I used to think they practiced their own versions of being Count Dracula,” he said.
“In that they would be very nice to the advocates when they came to Albany, and then they’d get back on those buses around 4 o clock and by 5 o clock the sun would go down and they’d go back to who they really are: a bunch of bloodsuckers.”
This entry was posted
on Monday, September 8th, 2008 at 12:30 pm by Joseph Spector.
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Jay Gallagher has covered Albany for Gannett News Service since 1984 and has been Albany Bureau chief since 1989. He`s a native of the Boston area and likes to point out that in this millennium, the score is Red Sox 1 championship, the Yankees 0. 
Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them. 
