Governor Paterson Hints at Job Cuts

Despite promising state workers last year that there would be no layoffs, Governor David A. Paterson stated on Monday that times have changed since then and that New York may have to cut jobs anyway, buttressing earlier statements made by state budget director Robert Megna last week on the same topic. Paterson told reporters at a tee-ball game that planning for layoffs is going to have to begin “immediately,” due to what he said was the state workers’ union’s refusal to cut Albany $250 million worth of slack from wages and benefits. Without these concessions, Paterson said that cutting positions was the only way to balance the budget which is already four months overdue.

Responding to protests that the governor is backing out on a deal, Paterson said that the original agreement had been made while the state was under the assumption it would be getting $1 billion in federal aid; now that this funding is no longer certain, the governor said the deal can’t go on. The unions are unhappy with this reasoning and, according to the Buffalo News, are already considering legal action in response.

This isn’t the first time the governor has flirted with layoffs to close the budget gap. Back in March, he instructed the directors of state agencies to pick out which positions to cut when the aforementioned no-layoffs agreement ended at the beginning of 2011 and threatened state lawmakers with job cuts in May in an attempt to intimidate a completed budget out of them.