“We’ve not had to furlough or lay off any workers, but the means of balancing budgets are becoming less and less available, and everything is on the table,” Governor David Paterson said. “We are going to have to make sure New York can still meet its obligations, that we don’t delay payments which would injure our financial status.”

There is already a $3 billion gap in this year’s $131.8 billion budget. Initially, it had maintained balance through a workforce reduction savings of $260.3 million over a two year span. This was attained by cutting 3,722 jobs through attrition and abolishing funded vacancies. A low number of workers (around 1,000) took buyouts of $20,000 after intense lobbying.