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"I don't want to alarm anyone, but I think it's safe to say that we should see this as a $3 billion budget deficit ... The state of California has had to pass out IOUs, which has reduced their credit rating to Triple-B, which is one status above junk bond. The state of Pennsylvania has had to delay payments to school districts and local governments, social-service organizations and even to state workers to try to maintain balance in the their [sic] budget. I must warn everyone here that if we don't take action immediately, we will start to face the problems some of these other states have had." —Governor Paterson, on the state budget yesterday [NYP]