From The Desk Of Brian Kolb

Tuesday afternoon, I instructed my staff to provide to Governor Paterson and his staff a series of 'conversation starters' for reducing New York's projected $3 billion budget deficit.  Today, the Governor submitted for the Legislature's consideration his proposals to reduce New York's deficit.  I believe that further reductions in the areas of education and health care should only be considered as a last resort.  Once fully implemented, the conversation starters I suggested - which included consolidating certain state agencies, empowering localities to decide which optional Medicaid services they provide, reducing Non-Personal Services spending and eliminating Legislative Earmarks - would achieve $3 billion in budgetary savings.  I believe we should look to reducing the size and cost of state government before focusing on crucial public priorities.  Now that the conversation has been started, all New Yorkers need to be a part of this important dialog.