Paterson takes $1.6 billion in emergency action

ALBANY -- Unable to get the Legislature to agree on how to address a $3.2 billion deficit, New York Gov. David Paterson on Sunday said he's taking $1.6 billion worth of temporary, emergency measures to cover the state's December bills.

While he continues to negotiate, he may have lost some leverage. Several lawmakers have sought the executive branch actions to provide more time to wait for revenues to rebound after Jan. 1 and to avoid Paterson's cuts to powerful special interests in public schools and hospitals.

"I feel that we have to start making the deficit reductions on our own, hoping the Legislature will join us," Paterson said in a teleconference with reporters. "This is the point where other states went off the cliff. This is where they should have acted and didn't."