$6.8 Billion

The picture for the Empire State’s finances keep getting grimmer:

Gov. David Paterson told legislative leaders today that the budget deficit has now inched up to $3.2 billion, pushing the projected gap for 2010-2011 to $6.8 billion.

This will be formalized in the Budget Division’s mid-year update, to be released [today]. The last official quarterly deficit estimate from DOB in July was: $2.1 billion in 2009-10, $4.6 billion in 2010-11. Combined two-year deficit of $6.7 billion.

That means the deficit reduction plan Paterson unveiled just two weeks ago – $3 billion for the current year and $5 billion over two years – is now less sufficient to address the state’s ever-mounting problems – even if lawmakers and special interests were willing to embrace it in its entirety, which they clearly are not.

[Paterson] also reiterated his warning about the mid-December deadline for a number of big bills coming due, adding: “Anybody who tries in any way to differentiate or confuse this issue is not serving the public.”

The Ever-Growing Deficit – Liz Benjamin @ Daily News