he minute Gov. David Paterson released his proposal on Thursday to tackle the state's budget crisis, you can bet the lobbying organizations were planning their advertising campaigns.

Yes, Paterson took the unpopular step of calling for cuts in budgeted aid to schools, hospitals and nursing homes, among other areas.

In the next few weeks, commercials will show school children and senior citizens with sad looks on their faces. We'll be told that Paterson wants to fire teachers and nurses, that he wants to shut down hospitals and nursing homes.

We'll hear that well-worn phrase “on the backs of,” as in “the governor wants to bail out Albany on the backs of our children and grandparents.”

The lobbying groups will spend millions of dollars on these messages.

And they will all be gross exaggerations.

The question, though, is whether enough courageous leaders in Albany will finally stand up and do what needs to be done for the future of this state.

The Legislature and the governor both caved in to this pressure last time, passing a state budget last spring that was wildly unrealistic and that relied on one-time shots of federal funds to plug gaping holes that have only grown wider since that time.

That's why they find themselves in this position today.

The numbers cannot be ignored. The state's revenues are substantially lower than the state's expenditures. And the state's taxpayers are suffering through a terrible economic cycle, so they're not in a position to pay more taxes.

That leaves one good option - significant state spending cuts.

Yes, it's going to cause some pain, but the longer this action is delayed, the worse the pain will be.