Paterson: This Isn’t “Middle of Tehran”
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- November
- 5
Gov. David Paterson appear to be getting little support from Senate Democrats in his call to address a joint session of the state Legislature on Monday.
While Assembly Democrats plan to attend have issued a proclamation to do so, Senate Democrats haven’t, and it’s unclear whether they will.
Even Paterson admitted as much this morning on the John Gambling radio show.
“Up in Albany, I want to address the joint session of the Legislature to try to explain to my colleagues what this problem is on Monday, and I’m getting some pushback about even being allowed to speak before my colleagues,” he said.
“Now if this was Bosnia or in the middle of Tehran, maybe I would understand why this is happening,” he said. “But this is New York state and the United States of America, and what I want to do is to look all of my colleagues in the eye at the same time, Democrat and Republican, upstate and downstate, and of all different ethnicities, and tell them we’ve got to pull together, put aside all these other issues and be strong enough and be resolute enough to make the tough decisions.”
Senate Deputy Majority Leader Jeff Klein, D-Bronx, said this morning that Senate Democrats recognize the need to close the deficit and want to start that Tuesday. As for Monday’s speech, that’s another story.
“All of us understand the serious nature of our economy and the need to balance last year’s budget. I think we’re all on the same page that we have to go back and find $3 billion in last year’s budget and we plan to do that on Tuesday,” he said.
“If we were going to start the DRP (deficit reduction plan) process on Monday, I’m there,” Klein continued. “But I don’t see the reason why we have to come back and listen to a speech. The time for speeches are over. We need action.”
This entry was posted
on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 11:41 am 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. 
