Gov. to release budget proposal early
- October
- 3
Gov. David Paterson, who is participating in a meeting with legislative leaders in New York City, said he wants to release the proposed 2009-1010 budget Dec. 16 rather than in January and potentially start the new budget year earlier than April 1. The reason is the state’s credit rating could be downgraded because of the state’s financial crisis, he said.
The governor announced that he is calling a Nov. 18 special legislative session for lawmakers to work on further cuts to the current year’s budget. The state is facing a further $1.2 billion budget shortfall because of what has been happening on Wall Street. The session is necessary so the state can meet its statutory responsibility of balancing the budget, Paterson said. This will be the third round of cuts this year.


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. 







