State Budget Battle Continues
NORTH SYRACUSE -- Governor David Paterson was back in Central New York Tuesday to get people back to work. The backdrop was the the State Weatherization Directors Association Training Center. That's where the Governor signed the new Green Jobs-Green New York Act.
It's a program designed to assist the low-income and unemployed and train them for so-called green-collar jobs. "It will create thousands of jobs for all New Yorkers in the fields of energy savings technology as we pursue the goal of weatherizing a million homes in the next five years," said Governor Paterson, (D) New York.
But it comes at a time when Paterson is still bogged down with the big budget battle. The state currently faces a projected $3.1 billion budget deficit and the Governor is leaning on lawmakers, calling on them to come up with ways to close the budget gap. "This is such a perilous time in our state's history," Paterson said.
The Governor was initially looking to lawmakers to come up with ways to fill the budget gap. But now, he says, he has a plan of his own to deal with the deficit and plans to unveil it within the next few days, then call the legislature back into special session. "We're going to have to start to act on this plan immediately so as not to incur any downgrade of our credit or miss payments to local governments or schools," Paterson said.
But amidst the growing fiscal crisis, the Governor is taking steps to create jobs by launching a new website to link job seekers and businesses through local training programs to get people right here in Central New York back to work. And he's using green technology to pave a new future for New York. "There's no question in my mind that New York State will be the leader in green jobs and new technology creation," said Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll.
And the budget debate will take center stage again tomorrow with Paterson's aides and legislative staff scheduled to meet to figure out where to cut and how to get the state out of this fiscal mess.
