State faces $1.2 billion deficit, more job losses

ALBANY — New Yorkers should prepare for fewer services and potentially higher school and local property taxes under the most stern budget warning yet from Gov. David Paterson.

“Everything is on the chopping block,” Paterson said Friday at a meeting with legislative leaders in New York City, where he told every level of government to brace for the financial blow as lawmakers try to close a projected $1.2 billion budget gap.

Paterson expects the deficit to grow to $2 billion by the end the fiscal year and noted an unemployment rate above 6 percent for the first time since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.