By Jordan Heller
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Gov. David Paterson and Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo met in Midtown Tuesday to discuss the transition of power, the state's $9 billion budget shortfall and how to deal with an ongoing recession.
After the meeting, the governors held a joint press conference where the two praised each other, and Paterson said he'd work to help Cuomo any way he could.
Ater expressing confidence in Cuomo, Paterson said "if he walked in with a baseball bat I might feel a little differently" — a reference to Cuomo's Republican rival Carl Paladino's campaign rallying cry to "take a baseball bat to Albany."
The conversation quickly turned to the state's budget woes, with Cuomo repeating a campaign promise not to raise taxes.
The governor-elect said New York would have no economic future if it was the highest taxed state in the country.
"You have to offer an environment for business that is palatable," he said.
When pressed on the issue of the state's need for revenues versus a low tax rate for New York's richest 1 percent, Cuomo said the state has had no problem asking high-income New Yorkers to pay more taxes, but "at what point do the rich people say 'I'm moving,'" he said.
Paterson and Cuomo also discussed the additional revenues a clean energy economy could bring to the state and initiating measures to reduce fraud and waste in state government.
Regarding some of the unpopular moves Paterson made during his tenure — including layoffs of state workers in an effort to close budget shortfalls — Cuomo said his predecessor had to make some tough choices.
"Welcome to the job of being governor of New York," he said.
