Twice in the last 10 days Gov. David Paterson went back to the principles of fiscal discipline, which gave him an immediate upswing in polling last year when he assumed the governorship.

The big question is, will the two items he touted - impact statements on localities for state actions and capping state spending to the rate of inflation - ever come to fruition?

If his past track record and that of the state Legislature is any indication, it is doubtful.

For years localities have asked governments higher up the food chain to look at the cost of unfunded mandates.

There has been limited success in doing this, the most notable is a 1995 law passed in Washington to look at the cost of environmental regulations on localities. Yet, for the most part, laws that sound good to legislators in Washington and Albany, that allow them to get photo ops at bill signings, rarely consider the true impact down the line.

So when Paterson ordered last week that impact statements be required from departments under his control in the Executive Branch until they looked at the record.

Critics of Paterson's words not matching his record were quick to point out that the recent reform of the Rockefeller Drug Laws will require more drug offenders to stay in county facilities, not state facilities, adding additional burdens to local taxpayers.

Days later, the governor came out with the idea of capping state spending to the rate of inflation.

Paterson contends that if that had been done in the past five years, taxpayers would have been saved $17 billion. A great idea, especially knowing that the state's budgets have for years outpaced the rate of inflation.

Albany seems to have an unquenchable appetite to spend without regard to outside economic factors. If Paterson really was serious about the idea of limiting spending in relation to inflation, one has to ask how he could sign off on a budget, just last month, that increased taxes by $8.5 billion to help pay for more than $12 billion in new spending?

Actions speak louder than words and this week's gubernatorial idea looks like just a bunch of words when considering his record.

While Paterson may have the fiscal self-restraint bug again, as we saw in the four months leading up to the adoption of the 2009-2010 budget, he lost his way and agreed to a spending plan in a time when fiscal restraint was needed.

Cosentino is a former mayor

of Auburn and can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com