Much as in New York City, the politicians at Albany seem set in the mindset that state spending can’t be controlled and thus taxes must be raised. Facing down a $11.5 billion gap in a $90 billion budget for the fiscal year ending in 2004, neither the governor, the Assembly, nor the Senate has pro posed significant spending cuts and are ready to resort to raising taxes on the already overtaxed people of the Empire State. This isn’t what the governor said he wanted to do when, in January, he delivered his State of the State Address, declaring: “While other states raise taxes, let us out-compete any state and continue to create new jobs by maintaining New York’s eight-year record as the taxcutting capital of America.” In the same speech, the governor said, “Let’s not say we are going to fight to create jobs and then come to Albany and vote to raise job-killing taxes.”

So, if the governor and the Legislature can’t find a way to cut $11.5 billion from the state budget to stave off job-killing taxes, we’ll give it a try ourselves. And, as with the series of cuts we proposed in New York City, we’ll start at the top: the Executive Mansion.

Albany’s Executive Mansion has seen quite a bit of history — but that will only boost its value at sale. As a real estate appraiser with decades of experience in Albany and Albany County told us yesterday, the mansion could, taken as a private residence, fetch about $2 million. Its historic status, however, would boost the price “much higher.”

How much higher isn’t particularly the point as much as that the governor has no need for a mansion — or the staff, upkeep, landscaping, and other frills that cost the taxpayers money. Plus, one more private residence on the tax rolls, especially a pricey one, means more property tax revenue for Albany. If the governor needs to entertain, there is always the capitol building.

As a publication on the Executive Mansion prepared by the New York State Office of General Services recounts, “For the first hundred years of New York’s history, the State did not provide a home for its chief executive. Such governors as George Clinton, John Jay, and Martin Van Buren took houses on Sate Street. As the OGS pamphlet continues, “Governors Hamilton Fish, Enos Throop and William L. Marcy lived on Elk Street. Some Governors found houses on Washington Avenue.” Governor Seward occupied a handsome house known as the Kane Mansion on Broad and Westerlo Streets. It’s hard to see why Mr. Pataki can’t do with what was good enough for John Jay.

New York would not be the only state without an executive mansion. Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, Idaho, Arizona, and California all lack these perks. Governor Swift had, for a time, to commute two-and-a-half hours to Boston. California is trying to build a mansion, but has hit snags with its own environmental regulations. So, given the historical value, call it $3 million toward closing the state’s gap.