Budget will be painful - Buffalo News

Now it comes, at least, if Paterson has his way. He is calling for a series of painful cuts and $1 billion in new taxes and fees, including a sharp increase in the state cigarette tax and a new tax on bottled soft drinks and beverage syrups. But first, he has to get the cooperation of the nation’s most dysfunctional Legislature, a body that has proven over and over again that there is no crisis it cannot deny, no reality it cannot ignore. Make no mistake, Paterson’s budget will cause pain. To reduce a $7.4 billion deficit, it would cut $95 million from the State University of New York and $47.7 million from the City University of New York systems.