Paladino: My 20% spending cut plan was unrealistic

GOSHEN - Across the state in his campaign for governor, Carl Paladino has touted his prescription for the state's fiscal woes: a 20 percent cut in state spending that, even with a 10 percent tax cut, would close an $8.5 billion budget gap next year.

But now the Republican developer from Buffalo says the 20 percent spending cut in one year - the equivalent of $14 billion from the state's $66 billion general fund - is unrealistic and can't be accomplished for 18 months to two years. Talking to reporters Monday in this Orange County village of 14,000, Paladino said experts told him closing state agencies, cutting the workforce and trimming Medicaid takes time.

The spending cut's "value in the future when you implement all the cuts will be 20 percent. But it doesn't all just happen tomorrow morning. You don't just shut down these things in that short period of time," said Paladino, whose website's issues page recently changed to reflect his new position. His comments came on a day when the inflammatory issue of military service surfaced for the first time. Democrat Andrew Cuomo's campaign accused Paladino, an Army Reserve veteran, of misrepresenting his service during Vietnam. In turn, surrogates for Paladino castigated Cuomo for not enlisting in the military at all.

Cuomo's spokesman Josh Vlasto called Paladino "ignorant and unqualified to lead" New York after a New York Post report Monday showing Paladino did not command troops during a stint at Fort Bliss, Texas, in 1971 and was there for three months, not six, as his campaign manager once incorrectly told reporters. In response, Paladino's campaign issued a statement questioning Cuomo's patriotism because he did not serve in the Army.

Cuomo said he himself had not criticized Paladino's service. He added: "I'm the attorney general, I think you should tell the truth. That's my position."

Paladino has tried to turn the election's dialogue from his comments on homosexuals toward his economic policies. But Monday he walked away from a question about how he could close the hole in the 2011-12 budget, which his 10-percent tax cut would increase by about $6 billion. In the past, he said the 20 percent spending cut would slash $14 billion from the budget, but his website now says he plans to cut only $7 billion. Paladino's campaign did not respond to requests for clarification. Paladino's Agenda for New York, an online repository of position papers, does not address how he would reconcile the spending and tax cuts.

E.J. McMahon, director of the conservative Empire Center for New York State Policy, called Paladino's goals "laudable" but unrealistic. With Elizabeth Moore