WNYC: Gov. David Paterson says New York has just $3 million in cash on hand and he will decide this week what payments to defer so the state can stay solvent.
"We are in a very deep quagmire," Paterson says. "New York is now at the breaking point. We are about to cross the financial rubicon into fiscal disaster."
An aide to the governor says local school districts would likely be hit first.
Paterson announced the bad news in a speech he delivered on Wall Street to civic, business, and labor leaders. He says while many Americans blame Wall Street for the nation's economic problems, they should remember the financial sector is New York's economic engine -- and when it does well, the state does, too...
"...We need to stand behind the engine of our economy in New York, and that engine of the economy is Wall Street," Paterson says.
Rewind: Nov. 30
Fast-forward: December 2010: WNYC: Here in Albany, this capital city of a struggling state is bracing for a major reset that will be painful. In less than a fortnight new leadership will arrive that has pledged to take the first steps on the path of restoring the faded "Empire State."
In the transition, the vast castle complex that is New York's capitol building feels near empty and still.
It is the between-time. The old regime has just days left. Control in the Senate is expected to shift to the Republicans and a Democratic governor is coming in promising to cut government. There are cardboard boxes and blank nameplates.
Ironically, as the new incoming Governor and legislative leaders try and marshall the political courage to restore the state, they will do so in a building that itself continues to be under going a major makeover to repair decades of neglect and deferred maintenance.
Fast-forward: December 2010: CBS:
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