According to last week's cover story in New York magazine, Gov. David Paterson hates the term “his accidency” when it comes to his accession to the Governor's Mansion in late March. Six months into his new responsibilities, the former Senate minority leader has done a good job at sounding the clarion call about the financial crisis that faces New York. Yet, the hard work is yet to come, fixing what is clearly wrong with the state.

When he took over, most New Yorkers had no idea who Paterson was. He was known mainly for his congeniality. Yet, in the intervening six months he rightly has received high marks for his putting New York's financial crisis front and center.

He quickly moved to start addressing the financial problems that few, other than columnists, economists and good government groups, have been harping on for some time. He called for cuts in the Executive Branch that totaled well over half a billion dollars and then, in an election year, did the unthinkable #- he told the Legislature they had to come back to the capital, less than six months after passing a spending plan, and needed to cut an additional $600 million. This was all before the most recent free fall of the financial markets, specifically Wall Street, which accounts for more than 20 percent of Albany's annual revenues.

With few notable public relations goofs, the former legislator has done an excellent job in bringing a recalcitrant Legislature along with him to talk about hard times ahead. And such negative talk has not lost him support among rank and file New Yorkers, who, despite Paterson's talk about significant cuts in state programs, give him good approval ratings.

Yet, the hard work for New York is still ahead and will likely come to a head a month from now when the state Legislature returns to address what is now thought to be a $1.2 billion budget gap. Making matters worse is that this number came about before this last week and a half of drops in the markets - that number is likely to have increased, making it even more needful to not only make cuts but clear structural reforms in how New York spends its money.

That will be the real test for Paterson #- when programs and services have to be cut #- something that most of New York's taxpayers have yet to feel. Six months into his job, Paterson deserves high marks for changing the terms of the debate to be about the need to change the way Albany does business, and that is not an accident.

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