Paterson for New York

By MAURY THOMPSON thompson@poststar.com | Posted: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 11:20 pm

ALBANY -- Charting the right path for the state to climb out of financial calamity is more important than being returned to office, Gov. David Paterson said Tuesday.

"Whatever happens to me, I think I'm bringing a brand of governance to this state," Paterson said Tuesday during a meeting with The Post-Star editorial board at the governor's office in the state capitol.

The next governor other than himself will know, he said, that he was "doing it the right way and will be compelled to repeat some of the protocols that I'm instituting right now, rather than trying to change it."

Paterson said that tough choices are necessary to reverse a state deficit that has been growing by $83 million a day since January.

"Clearly for the last 30 years, we have frittered away the resources of this state, haven't stood up to the inequities that have been hoisted upon us by the federal government, have not grown new industries to replace the financial services industries in New York City and the manufacturing industry upstate," he said.

Paterson said his biggest challenge is to change the culture in Albany so that Democrats and Republicans are debating over which party is more fiscally disciplined.

"One wants to tax and spend, the other wants to borrow and spend, but they both want to spend," he said.

Paterson was appointed governor in March 2008 after former Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned.

At first, his gregarious and forthright personality made Paterson immensely popular. But he fell out of public favor with controversy over his appointment of Kirsten Gillibrand to the U.S. Senate in January and his ongoing friction with the state Legislature over how to reduce the deficit.

But his poll numbers have now recovered somewhat to a 40 percent favorable rating in the most recent Quinnipiac University poll and 37 percent in the most recent Siena College Research Institute poll.

"I've been reading public opinion polls, which I feel better reading these days," Paterson quipped at one point during the hour-long meeting.

Paterson has already began running campaign commercials for the November 2010 election, when he hopes to be elected to a full four-year term.

State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, also is believed to be planning a run for governor.

On the Republican side, former U.S. Rep. Rick Lazio of Long Island has announced his candidacy and received the endorsement of former New York City Mayor Rudolph Guiliani on Tuesday.

Erie County Executive Chris Collins, another Republican, has hired consultants and is exploring running for governor.

Republicans, including state Sen. Elizabeth Little of Queensbury and Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb of the Finger Lakes region, have recently chided Paterson for being at odds with his own party.

Paterson said Tuesday that more Republicans should follow us lead of being independent.

"And that's why they're both (Senate and Assembly Republican conferences) in the minority the last time I checked -- because there isn't that sense of free and open exchange," he said.

"All 30 (Senate) Republicans wanted to vote against the deficit reduction plan -- are you kidding? Not one of them thought we should have deficit reduction?" Paterson asked. "So independence does sometimes mean taking on your own party."

Paterson, a former state senator, said it hasn't been the best time to be governor, but he does not regret it.

"I've been a legislative leader. I've been through budgets. But I've also been through the worst economic crisis that this state may have ever gone through -- even including the Great Depression," he said. "While that's not what I chose, those are the defining times. So if the choice were to be governor in this horribly difficult period or not to be governor at all, I'd gladly choose this. It's a challenge."

Paterson said several factors potentially could cast him in a more favorable light.

One would be what effect his recent executive order to delay $750 million in payments to municipalities and schools has on the state's credit rating.

"I'm watching what's happening to other states, and that's why I gave the executive order to delay the certifications because no other state tried it," he said. "And all the other states got their credit ratings downgraded. So maybe the raters will see that this governor is trying everything to make sure that this state doesn't wind up where those 10 states that I mentioned before are."

The reference to "those 10 states," was to a comment Paterson made earlier in the meeting about other states that have worse financial troubles than New York.

"We're not on the top lists of states that are going under. It's California and what I call its neighboring mortgage foreclosure states which are Arizona, New Mexico and Oregon," he said. "It's Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois in the sort of Middle States belt. And then Florida, who had a serious mortgage foreclosure problem. And then New Jersey and Rhode Island are the top 10 states."

Paterson said he's also hoping his initiative to create jobs in the renewal energy sector will bear fruit.

"If I can accomplish that, and that's certainly my goal, then the obvious frustration of cutting and disappointing people and saying you have to make the tough choices but then being on the other end of the reaction when you make the tough choices, then it will be all worth it," he said.

"Being governor around here a few months ago, I was totally counted out. It was a painful feeling but a familiar feeling," he said. "So I know what you have to do when you're behind the 8-ball. And I think that kind of experience might just lend this state some leadership of how you get out of crisis."