By BRENDAN SCOTT
May 28, 2008
ALBANY - Gov. Paterson took his cry for fiscal restraint to its most skeptical audience yesterday: the Assembly's Democratic majority and organized labor.
In separate appearances, the governor warned his fellow Democrats as well as labor leaders that sinking state revenues and a looming three-year, $21 billion budget deficit could force deep spending cuts in the months ahead.
Paterson also said he would continue to oppose a proposal backed by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) to hike taxes on the wealthiest 1 percent of New Yorkers.
"There are a number of belt-tightening maneuvers that we have to show the public that we've engaged in before we can go to the nearest business or the nearest millionaire and ask them for more money," Paterson told reporters after a 90-minute closed-door powwow with Assembly Democrats at the Capitol.
