You didn't need to be a neurosurgeon to see over the last year that this state would be facing a fiscal crisis. Collapsing investment banks - which we used to havem but don't anymore - certainly made clear that the revenue side of the budget would be facing some strain.

Now, the governor is preparing to make cuts to that budget, and it's not going to be pretty.

Gov. David A. Paterson said in an interview on Sunday that he would almost certainly seek billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid, as well as midyear reductions in school aid, to address New York’s worsening fiscal condition.

He also said he expected to urge labor unions to reopen the contracts they have struck on behalf of public employees as a way to avoid or decrease layoffs.

WFP hasn't yet weighed in with multiple email blasts, but of one thing you can be certain: nobody's cutting a dime to schools while Randi Weingarten yet breathes.

WFP's most excellent Dan Levitan emails over a release announcing a joint effort by the Working Families Party and Straphangers to fight the proposed fare hike for the subway. There's even a web site, HaltTheHike.org.

Working Families Party, Straphangers Campaign Launch Online Effort to Win Funding for Mass Transit, Prevent Fare Hikes

New York – Fighting to “keep mass transit affordable for working people,” the Straphangers Campaign and the Working Families Party announced today the re-launch of www.haltthehike.org, an online campaign to prevent MTA fare hikes by winning adequate public aid for mass transit from the city and state.

Over 7,000 New Yorkers have already used the website to send Governor Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg a clear message: “With the economy down and the cost of living up, New Yorkers can’t afford a fare hike two years in a row. To keep public transportation affordable and reliable we need more city and state aid for mass transit.”

“Over the last 30 years, public transportation in New York has seen an incredible revival,” said Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for the Straphangers Campaign. “With gas prices up and MTA ridership booming, now is not the time for city and the state to abandon transit riders and the MTA. Public transportation can meet the needs of a growing city, but not without adequate public investment.”

“Public transportation is the lifeblood of our city,” said Working Families Party Executive Director Dan Cantor. “With the cost of living skyrocketing in New York, working people can’t afford fare hikes two years in a row. But simple math says without proper aid from the state and city, transit riders will end up picking up the tab.”

The two groups plan to continue the campaign to win funding for public transportation and prevent MTA fare hikes throughout the fall and into next year’s legislative session in Albany.

“The fight to keep the subway affordable is never ending, but it’s a fight we need to win,” added Dan Cantor.

Transit riders already pay more than their fair share of keeping the MTA running. In 2006, riders paid 55% of the costs of running the subways and buses. Metro-North riders paid 58% and LIRR riders paid 47%.

Riders elsewhere pay much less, funding an average 37% of the costs for the biggest 50 transit systems nationwide. Riders in Philadelphia, Boston, and Los Angeles pay 37%, 29%, and 23% respectively of the costs for their transit systems.

They have a real point: New Yorkers pay more for our mass transit than anyone else in the country. A fare hike falls disproportionately on lower- and middle-class riders who have no alternate means of getting from A to B. Sure, the economy is in the toilet, the budget not doing all that well, but there are better ways to finance the essential infrastructure of the agglomeration than by going, as usual, to the people most dependent on using it.

According to the Daily News, on September 7 the Mayor told top aides that the "Office of Management and Budget would approve only 'critically necessary' hires."

Since then, there have been a lot of new hires.

The best line in the article is probably this: "The mayor's office hired 26 salaried staffers since Sept. 8 for $1.2million a year; 19 are paid with city funds."

Seriously, what kind of hiring freeze is ignored by the guy who ordered it?