As the stalemate between the Legislature and the governor drags on, Governor Paterson is hoping to ignite the engine by making cuts on his own.

“What I’m going to do is to start taking the cuts that we think are appropriate and putting them in the emergency appropriations. And I’m going to start next week,” said Paterson.

The Senate and Assembly have agreed on about $6.5 billion in cuts.

But they still have another $2.5 billion to go to fill the budget gap.

“The public isn’t angry over the government taking action. The public is angry at the government not taking action,” said Paterson.

One action that didn’t work was Paterson’s furlough plan. A judge shot that down last week.

Now, the governor wants to lay off thousands of state employees at the end of this year.

But Lise Bang-Jensen, with the conservative Empire Center for Public Policy, says Paterson’s plan won’t save all that much money.

“That’s nine months into the fiscal year. Paterson is trying to get 12 months of savings in three months,” she said.

According to the Empire Center, New York state ranks 11th in the country for number of government employees per capita and 4th in the country for average salary.

If the budget doesn’t pass this week, the state will be on its tenth emergency spending plan since the budget was due April 1.

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