Paterson criticizes judge's decision on furloughs

ALBANY - Gov. David A. Paterson Thursday criticized a federal judge for not holding a hearing before deciding to delay furloughs of unionized state employees.

Paterson said U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence E. Kahn accepted a false argument that workers would lose 20 percent of their pay by staying home one day per week until a new state budget is in place. The lost wages only represent 3 percent of workers' yearly pay, he said.

"What disappointed us is that we were not allowed to have a hearing," Paterson told WOR radio in Manhattan. "If you read the judge's opinion, there is . . . a mistake that would have been cleared up had we had the chance to speak," the governor continued, referring to the lost wages dispute.

A hearing is scheduled for May 26 in Albany federal court.

Paterson also took issue with Kahn prohibiting him from continuing to withhold a 4-percent salary increase due to union workers since April 1. "The judge tells . . . the CEO [chief executive officer] of the state what they can legislate and what they can't . . . I found it to be unusual."

The furloughs would have affected 100,000 workers across the state, including about 11,600 on Long Island. They were designed to pressure the unions into accepting $250 million in concessions as part of a plan to close this year's $9.2-billion budget deficit. The 2010-11 budget is 44 days late.

The furloughs were to have begun Monday.

Asked if all state employees should take a day off each week without pay, Paterson volunteered to do so and recalled giving back 10 percent, or $18,000, of his $175,983 salary last year.

However, the governor wouldn't comment on whether he plans to lay off workers as other states have in the current recession. "I'm going to wait until after the court decision . . . Quite often if you have remedied your own problem, the court rules against you," he said.

The furlough plan, he added, "is the best way we think to handle this . . . everybody takes a little hit so that some don't have to take the ultimate hit."

New York hasn't furloughed employees in modern times.

Paterson aides Thursday were drafting the emergency spending bills needed to keep government running for another week. The bills will be considered by the legislature on Monday and for the first time in seven weeks won't withhold workers' raises.