When Governor Paterson announced that, in order to save money, he would add a one-day-a-week furlough for 100,000 state workers to the next emergency budget bill, legislators had a choice: vote for the bill and pass the furloughs they opposed, or vote against it and shut down state government. Well, no matter how much it stings their pride to give in to Paterson’s demands, it looks like Democratic leaders are going the “keep government operational” route after all but only because they don’t actually expect the furloughs to ever happen anyway. John Sampson, the leader in the Senate, is crossing his fingers that the weeks-late annual state budget could finally be agreed upon before the furlough goes into effect, while Sheldon Silver, the Assembly speaker, said that he thinks the courts will rule the furloughs illegal. And he may be right!
Albany leaders bow to Gov. Paterson’s push for worker furloughs [NYDN]
