In Washington, Paterson Asks for Help
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

WASHINGTON — Governor Paterson is pleading for more help from the federal government as he tries to close a state budget gap projected at $26.2 billion during the next three years. In his first speech in Washington since taking office in March, the governor painted a grim portrait of the national economy and said that while Albany would tighten its belt, federal taxpayers also had to chip in. “The federal government is going to have to put more into the states that support it in the next few years before we have what will be a national crisis of bankruptcy and perhaps further fiscal insolvency,” Mr. Paterson said. He noted that the state sends Washington far more in taxes than it gets back in funding, and he said the need was particularly urgent in transportation, with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority wallowing in red ink. The governor was greeted warmly by a National Press Club audience getting its first look at the new leader. He flashed his trademark humor to great effect, even making a joke at the expense of his predecessor, Eliot Spitzer, who was felled by a prostitution scandal that played out partly in the nation’s capital. Asked what politicians should learn from the missteps of their disgraced colleagues, he replied: “Be careful when you come to Washington.”