Gov. Paterson meets with upstate news organizations

Gov. David Paterson fielded questions from editorial board leaders from across upstate New York this afternoon at WXXI’s headquarters in downtown Rochester.

Paterson, accompanied by state Budget Director Robert Megna, answered wide-ranging questions from high taxes to job losses to the need for government consolidation.

“Answering to Upstate,” a 90-minute discussion, was streamed live online at 3:30 p.m. www.democratandchronicle.com and www.wxxi.org, and will be televised at 9 tonight on WXXI-TV (Channel 21, cable channel 11). The program will also be aired at 10 p.m. on WXXI-AM 1370.

The discussion included editorial board representatives from the Democrat and Chronicle, The Buffalo News and the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin. It was moderated by Democrat and Chronicle editorial page editor James Lawrence.

Editorial boards from newspapers around upstate have collaborated for the last two and a half years, though the idea to televise an editorial board meeting with Paterson started at the Democrat and Chronicle.

Paterson was greeted by about 75 disability rights protesters chanting, “Don’t cut our freedom,” this afternoon when he arrived at the WXXI studios.

The protesters want the governor to drop a proposed cap on care for a person with disabilities. There currently is no limit on how much time someone can be cared for by a personal care aide, but Paterson wants to limit that to 12 hours a day.

The protesters say that the proposed cap would force more people into costly nursing home care.

One of the protesters, Linda Ostertag, 61, of Henrietta, who has multiple sclerosis, showed up in a wheelchair and said, “I need 24/7 (care).” Among other things, aides feed her and turn her in bed.

Ostertag said that when she was in a nursing home about 10 years ago she felt much more restricted than she does now at home. “I feel my civil rights are being violated” by the proposed cap.

Addressing the group with a megaphone, Paterson said that his proposal was prompted by the fact that the cost of personal care aides had increased by more than 28 percent since 2003, while the number of people receiving care had decreased by 8 percent.

“The cap on 12 hours was not designed to stop people from getting care after 12 hours. It was designed to shift them into a different program if they need more care,” Paterson said.

Advocates, however, said that many of those alternative programs would not work out in practice.

Bruce Darling, president of the Center for Disability Rights, told the governor that he has a list of more than $200 million in budget cuts as an alternative to the cap on personal care aides.

Paterson said he wanted to sit down and talk about the proposals. “If any one of you can prove to me that you can save me $200 million, you don’t need to be protesting at WXXI, you need to be in my budget office,” he said.

When protesters told Paterson that they would be in Albany on Monday, he agreed to meet with them.

Paterson’s aides said the governor is occasionally met by protesters when he makes public appearances, and he tries to make a point of talking to them.

JGOODMAN@DemocratandChronicle.com