Over the last 10 days, there has been talk that Gov. David Paterson, for the second time in less than 60 days, may call the state Legislature back to Albany before Election Day.

Don't bank on it, even if the economy gets worse.

According to one ranking regional leader of the state Legislative delegation who discussed the issue on Monday, it just isn't practical, both operationally and politically.

There is little question that New York has the most volatile financial crisis on its hands of any state, since it relies so heavily on one single source for a great deal of its revenue. That, of course, is Wall Street, which accounts for nearly 20 percent of what comes into Albany's coffers annually.

The turmoil on Wall Street that really hit full throttle last week with the collapse of Lehman Brothers and then the state assisting American International Group has Albany worried, as it should. Paterson has painted a gloomy picture, citing the likely absence of nearly $1 billion in revenue that Albany was counting on over the next six months, as it already faced, at the beginning of September, a likely $5.4 billion budget gap for the fiscal year that starts six months from Wednesday.

The fallout from Lehman's demise of course led Albany to help out AIG (to the tune of $20 million). With all this in mind, it is clear that Albany needs to address what is likely to be a ballooning budget gap this coming fiscal year.

Yet, despite rumors of a “call back” from the governor, don't expect the Legislature to go back to the state's capital until after Election Day, some 40 days from now. According to the legislative leader, the process and the politics don't play for doing anything sooner.

From an operational point of view, the dust has far from settled over the crisis on Wall Street and its direct impact on New York. Yes, pension plans have taken a hit, and tax revenues will be down, but to come up with a plan to address these items and more cannot be put together overnight, it may take two or three weeks to do so.

That leads to the other reason that you most likely won't see the Legislature back in late October - it is just weeks before Election Day. To really fix what the state must do to right its financial house, tough choices will need to be made - choices that will not sit well days before an election. A special session at this point will be more about political gamesmanship than proper public policy, getting little done if not making the atmosphere more toxic and tougher to get things done.

If anything, expect the Legislature to go back after Nov. 4.

Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com