Some days you have to wonder if Gov. David Paterson has the ability to focus. He rightfully called the New York State Legislature back into session this week to address what he considers to be a nearly $3.2 billion budget shortfall in the current 2009-10 state budget. What seemed to be odd was that Paterson, in the midst of this fiscal crisis, also wanted the Senate to deal with the controversial issue of gay marriage. This demand begs the question as to whether the governor has the ability to prioritize.

Making the changes that are required to fix New York's fiscal house are complex and will take a Herculean effort. What Paterson suggested when he called the special session was not going to be easy, nor palatable. The mid-year school district cuts alone that he proposed were going to be almost impossible to pass, requiring all 32 Democrats in the 62 member chamber being on board. Legislators, who don't want to make tough and unpopular choices, ever, let alone in on the eve of an election year, were not going to easily pass what he wanted. And by the end of Tuesday, had not passed any of his budget suggestions.

It got to the point where the leadership of the Senate majority was looking to, at first, avoid attending the session where Paterson was going to outline the scope of the problem. In the end the boycott folded when several upstate Senate Democrats, including Senate Vice President David Valesky, who represents parts of Cayuga County, said they would attend the speech despite the leadership's plan.

Yet, even with their boycott backfiring, Senate Democrats did the next best political thing #- they challenged the size of the shortfall and calculated it at roughly 8 percent of what Paterson estimates, solving it with one-time gimmicks and unclear, if not unproven, proposals.

To get what is needed to deal with the fiscal issues will need Democratic unanimity and that is why the demand for a gay marriage vote seemed so ill timed. The issue divides even the Democratic conference; so demanding it be put on the agenda creates more than a distraction. It adds heat to the already volatile internal Senate relationship. Paterson's pledge to have it on the floor for a vote by Jan. 1 will not make it easier to get the fiscal issues resolved, especially when such a slim majority can have senators try to cut budget deals that get them something on the gay marriage front #- whether it is a pledge to vote for or against the legislation.

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