Gov. gives State of the State; protesters rally outside
-
- January
- 7
As Gov. David Paterson delivered his State of the State speech inside the Capitol this afternoon, hundreds of union members protested proposed cuts outside, as the Albany winter rained sleet on them. The state faces a budget deficit of more than $15 million, and Paterson has said that every aspect of government is going to have the share the pain.
Those who attended the rally asked Paterson to refrain from cutting funding for human services and government agencies. They asked Paterson to raise personal income taxes for those making over
$250,000 per year, and to cut unnecessary expenses in the state government.
“The government spends money on unnecessary consultants and lavish lifestyles for its members instead of giving funding to services that need it to serve their communities,” said Ken Brynien, president of the Public Employees Federation.
“As a registered nurse, if I don’t have the appropriate resources both real and physical, we can’t serve the people of this community,” said Barbara Crane, president of the New York State Nurses Association Delegate Assembly. Paterson should “do what we do in health care: find another cure,” Crane said.
Paterson said he expected all New Yorkers to feel the pain of the budget cuts equally, Civil Service Employees Association President Danny Donohue said.
“When the middle class tax payers wind up paying the bill, and the rich skip on any responsibility, that’s not sharing the pain,” Donohue said. “You can’t balance the budget on the backs of the workers of New York State.”
Here’s one protester’s take on the fiscal crisis:
Heather Senison of Gannett News Service covered the event and took the photos.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 2:14 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. 
