Cue the festive spirit
-
- November
- 19
Lawmakers and Gov. David Paterson may have failed to take any action yesterday on the state budget, but outside the Capitol today, East Park was bustling with activity. About 10 workers are putting up a Christmas tree and tethering it to the ground.
Paterson called the Assembly and Senate into emergency legislative session yesterday, with the intention of convincing members to cut $2 billion out of this year’s budget to take care of the state’s deficit. They couldn’t agree on anything, and a public meeting held by Paterson and legislative leaders was contentious. The governor plans to release his 2009-10 budget proposal in a month.
The East Park tree is a 30-foot blue spruce donated by Arlene Blazin of Latham, an Albany suburb, according to the state Office of General Services. A 35-foot blue spruce tree that will be erected in nearby Empire State Plaza (across from the Capitol) arrives tomorrow. It is being donated by Frank and Marie Riberdy of Waterford, Saratoga County.
LED lights will be put on the trees in the next week or so, and the spruces will be formally lit Dec. 7, a spokesman for the Office of General Services said.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 12:44 pm by Cara Matthews.
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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. 
