Gov. David Paterson declined to say this morning what action he might take in the wake of US District Judge Lawrence Kahn’s granting of a temporary restraining order that blocked the implementation of the furloughs until at least a May 26 hearing on the constitutionality of the one-day-without-pay plan.

The governor did have some criticism for the judge himself, however, wondering aloud why Kahn had not granted the state a hearing before his decision to plead its case (which, for the record, is being handled by AG Andrew Cuomo’s office).

Paterson said he thought there was a “mistake” in Kahn’s opinion and noted the judge said union members would suffer “permanent damage” if furloughs go forward due to a 20 percent reduction their salaries.

“And what they’re doing is that they’re counting one of five days a week,” Paterson told WOR’s John Gambling.

“…But John, we were instituting the furlough plan for eight weeks. So that would be one out of five days for eight weeks. So the total loss of their salaries is not 20 percent because there are 44 weeks of the year we’re not touching.”

Paterson estimated the total salary loss for state workers would be more in the neighborhood of 3 percent. He also pointed out that if the unions agree to a pay lag, workers don’t lose any money at all – at least not in the long run – because they get the cash back at the end of their service to the state.

“I think if we had had a hearing we could have explained that…and we would have had a different outcome,” the governor said.

Paterson also called the part of Kahn’s decision that deemed the governor has no right to withhold the state workers’ 4 percent contractually negotiated pay raises something that “really raises eyebrows.”

“It’s very unusual,” the governor said. “…”We’re going to challenge this seeming trend now where the judge tells, as you put it, the CEO of the state what they can legislate and what they can’t.”

The governor slammed the Legislature for the ongoing budget battle, but lashed out particularly hard at the Republicans for voting in a bloc against the budget extender that contained the furloughs – a move he deemed “unbelievable” and un-Republican.

“It’s just that this is more of a traditional Republican argument and actually doesn’t even have to do with Republican or Democrat,” Paterson said.

“What I’m saying is planet Albany has so subsumed the value system of people and it’s not just the Legislature, it’s a lot of other people…That they move away from their heartfelt feelings that they first had when they went into public service. That’s my point.”

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