Gov. Paterson, a master of the mixed message, thawed his self-proclaimed state-budget freeze long enough to pump up the pay of more than a dozen key aides.
So reports Post State Editor Fredric U. Dicker, who noted that the lucky 16 will divvy up $250,000 in extra salary at a time when the governor is asking state employees to forgo previously negotiated 3 percent pay hikes.
Paterson is absolutely right to be demanding salary givebacks. It’s ludicrous that unionized state employees are totally insulated from the pain inflicted on ordinary taxpayers by the deteriorating economy.
Indeed, if Paterson were serious about governing New York, he would’ve long ago made clear that the 3 percent wage saving will be realized – through either a voluntary freeze or layoffs, whichever the unions prefer.
Of course, if Paterson were serious about governing New York, would he be in his current pickle?
How do you impose general payroll discipline when you can’t say no to your personal staff?
You can’t, of course.
And Paterson, it’s becoming increasingly clear, can’t say no to anyone.
The governor, when speaking before such tax-conscious groups as business leaders or upstate property-owners, has been preaching spending restraint as if he invented the concept.
“It’s about time we started practicing some fiscal discipline,” he said last week.
So far, so good.
But speaking Sunday night to the tax-happy state Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators, Paterson had this to say:
“To those of you who think you are too wealthy or too influential or have too great a title to be part of New York’s budget-balancing formula, let me make you aware that every New Yorker will share in the sacrifice to get this budget balanced.”
This earned him a round of raucous applause from the usual suspects, including the union cat’s-paw Working Families Party.
But no one, not even the spendthrifts at the WFP, should take much comfort from Gov. Paterson’s words.
If he actually meant what he said Sunday night, he’d revoke the raises granted to his personal staff. How about that for budget-balancing sacrifice?
Meanwhile, he needs to develop consistent messages on important issues, and then stick to them.
As it is, even those who wish him well don’t know what, if anything, David Paterson really stands for.
This makes it very difficult indeed to support him.