New York Governor Paterson was in the Southern Tier of the state today, speaking in Binghamton, NY to several hundred people in his series of town hall meetings to ordinary citizens. The College Democrats of NY were there to cover the event- Reactions, Reporting and the latest out of New York...
cross posted on the College Democrats of NY blog: http://www.collegedemsny.com/...
As promised, the College Democrats were in attendance at Governor Paterson's town hall meeting in Binghamton, NY tonight. The event which took place at Broome Community College, had several hundred people in attendance.
Governor Paterson began by trying to give ordinary people a better understanding of what the state government is facing with a $15 billion deficit that must be balanced according to state law by April.
According to Paterson, half of the state's budget goes to local county and city government, leaving $55 billion for the rest of the budget which goes for education, health care, service jobs, etc.. Paterson is being forced to cut $15 billion out of that $55 billion, or roughly 1/4 of his budget. Obviously this is no small task ahead for him.
Questions asked at the town hall meeting ranged from SUNY educational cuts, to union jobs, to the Bigger Better Bottle Bill (he's in favor of it), to the much asked-about Millionaire's tax. When a person raised the question about the millionaire's tax, the audience erupted in applause- a clearly popular measure that Paterson is facing pressure to enact. Governor Paterson sort-of said he supported the millionaire's tax, although it wasn't quite clear. He stated that a millionaire's tax would produce $4 billion, leaving him to find $11 billion in cuts. He stated he would support it, if the state senate and government would be able to find that elusive $11 billion.
The Governor took special aim at the teacher's union for running negative ads on tv against him, for his proposal to merge schools and cut some teaching jobs to save money.
The only issue I had with Paterson, is that whenever someone asked why he was cutting a particular job sector, he kept on repeating about the need to make cuts in government. It was never clear why he made cuts in certain areas and not others.
Overall, I thank the governor for his time in coming to Binghamton to answer people's questions. I think it gives people a better understanding of where our state economy is, and why Paterson is being forced to make the cuts. I know I certainly enjoyed hearing him speak and reaching out to the community.