Gov. Paterson is considering midyear cuts to the state budget in light of plummeting revenues, he said yesterday.
Paterson didn’t specify where the cuts would be made, but said belt-tightening is a must.
“There’s a storm brewing,” he said. “It has to do with the failure of our national economy.”
The governor noted that in the fourth quarter of 2007, the state’s top 20 taxpayers – banks and corporations – paid $72 million in taxes. Those same companies, he said, paid seven times as much – $533 million – in the fourth quarter of 2006.
“We are going to have to learn to thread the needle in terms of adjusting and cutting back and growing our local economy in a way that we can withstand the huge losses in revenue projections over the next couple of years,” the governor said.
Paterson, who spoke to the Greater Hospital Association of New York, said he had organized a panel to study the current budget and identify areas where spending could be cut.
“We knew in January they said there will be a $3.6 billion deficit,” he said. “Now it’s past $4, maybe even $5 billion.”