Governor Paterson is set to deliver a rare address to a joint session of the State Legislature at 3 p.m. today to press lawmakers on his plan to close New York's $3.2 billion deficit. But he'll need to really crank up that Paterson charm to get everyone on board with his proposed cuts to health-care and education funding. Democratic Senator Carl Kruger unveiled his own proposal over the weekend, which removed "everything that would inflict pain" from Paterson's plan. That's the type of wishful thinking and lack of resolve that got us into the budget mess in the first place, Paterson's camp contends, but vulnerable Senate Democrats, especially those in the suburbs with school districts that will be hit hard by the cuts, are wary of a voter backlash. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver isn't onboard with Paterson's plan, either, meaning that the solution to the budget mess is cloudy all around. So, yeah, the special session Paterson has called for tomorrow looks about as promising as one would expect.

State Dems plan to snub Gov. Paterson's call for health, education cuts [NYDN]
Dave's budget cuts in trouble after poll purge [NYP]