The state government operations may be settling down but the economy in New York is in a turmoil. With a 25% increase in the budget over the past two years we are looking at a debt into the 5 billion mark. How is that going to be taken care of? The direction we have been headed needs to be reversed and that need to be accomplished with the help of Silver and the Assembly. But, are they willing to cut spending? That will be the real test for Paterson. Can he get Democrats, members of his own party to cut costs? Highly unlikely but this is one of the main reasons why Spitzer’s ratings went into the tank. His approval ratings were well into the 70’s.

New York’s next governor
A hard worker ready to lead

NEW YORK - David Paterson, a Democratic politician little known outside New York, is set to become the state’s first African American governor and the nation’s first legally blind governor Monday after the resignation of Eliot Spitzer.

Paterson, 53, elected with Spitzer 16 months ago, will serve a term that runs through the end of 2010. He inherits a state in financial turmoil with a $4.4 billion deficit and a looming April 1 deadline for approving a new budget.

“Like all New Yorkers, I am saddened by what we have learned over the past several days,” Paterson said in a statement. He said it was now time for the New York government to “get back to work as the people of this state expect from us.”

Paterson is from a prominent political family in Harlem. His father is Basil Paterson, the first black person to serve as New York’s secretary of state and as vice chair of the national Democratic Party.

“We will be in good hands,” former New York City Mayor Ed Koch said. He said Paterson “is highly intelligent, has a first-rate, warm personality, and is an excellent leader.”

Widely respected by New York lawmakers of both parties, Paterson has long been known as a trailblazer.

“David is somebody who works hard at getting along with people, works hard at common ground to make things happen,” H. Carl McCall, former state comptroller, told Bloomberg News. McCall has known Paterson since he was a teenager.

James Tedisco, the leader of the minority Republicans in the state Assembly, who has clashed with Spitzer, told reporters that Paterson had called him Monday as the crisis unfolded.

“He called me to ask if we would give him the benefit of the doubt, and go forward,” Tedisco said. “I told him we would.”

Paterson was elected to represent Harlem in the New York Senate in 1985 and became minority leader in 2002 when the GOP controlled the chamber.
(Excerpt) Read more —->

var sc_project=1609654; var sc_invisible=0; var sc_partition=15; var sc_security=”26e26d49″;