Albany, New York —

Governor George Pataki chose his ninth annual State of the State address to stress some of his favorite themes from his early years - cutting taxes, cutting the size of government - and he hopes, growing the economy. WNYC's Andrea Bernstein reports from the state capitol in Albany.

The state of the state address isn't the budget. It's the official opening of the legislative session in Albany, where a governor has a chance to set the agenda for the coming months. But for Governor Pataki, it was an opportunity to offer a sneak preview of what's to come when he unveils his budget in three weeks. And as he's shown many times before, he's adept at spooning the sugar with the medicine, with the emphasis on the sugar.

Pataki: That is why the budget I propose will not delay the tax cuts we've already passed It will, in fact add new targeted tax incentives to attract additional investment and good, high-tech jobs.

Tax cuts are what won the governorship for George Pataki in the first place, and they're what the conservatives who initially elected him adore. And though the Governor did not rule out tax hikes Conservative party chief Michael long was satisfied.

Long: Well it depends what you want to read between the lines. I heard that he doesn't want tax hikes, and that he understands tax hikes doesn't help our present situation.

Our present situation - a faltering economy, job loss, recession - informed everything Pataki said in his speech. Gone was the talk - prevalent in recent years, of growing spending for health care, and education. Instead, the governor vowed, with the exception of public safety, that every area of state government would be cut.

Pataki: We'll look to privatize certain state assets, take advantage of low-interest rates by refinancing state bonds to reduce debt service costs, and continue our reform efforts to lower the cost of Medicaid and other government programs. We will look to utilize other available funds, such as tobacco settlement funds and other resources to help close the shortfall the state is facing.

The measures Pataki was describing - selling state assets, bonding out tobacco settlement money - are the dreaded one-shots revenue raisers that, fiscal monitors like Diana Fortuna of the Citizens budget commission say, are what got new York into the trouble its in now.

Fortuna: Well that I find very worrisome, because there are a variety of ways you can solve the problem this year by pushing it off into the future but it's a mistake.

There were plenty of other promises in the speech. The Governor wants new anti-terrorism laws. He made his annual call for reforming , campaign finance reform, and the Rockefeller drug laws. And he called for having 25 percent of New York's energy come from renewable sources by 2013. But the backdrop was the sour economic times, and this offered little solace to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who traveled to Albany to lobby for a commuter tax and more help with Medicaid.

Bloomberg: I don't think any of us are happy in this country or in any of the states or any of the cities with the results of the economic downturn what that means is that we are going to have to find ways to do more with less.

In recent, months, Pataki has been criticized for putting off the state's problems instead of facing them. Yesterday, he didn't defend himself.

Pataki: We all agree that New York faces a serious crisis. We can either face it now and make the right choices to end it quickly, or we can pretend it doesn't exist, thus guaranteeing that it will still be plaguing our state for years to come.

But one Democratic critic, Assembly speaker Sheldon silver, said Pataki was continuing to pretend the elephant in the room - a budget gap of $10 billion next year - doesn't exist.

Silver: It's time to be honest and frank with the people of the state of New York. It's time for them to understand that we face difficult times.

Pataki bracketed his speech by talking about September 11 - raising the specter of terrorism at the beginning, calling for rebuilding of lower Manhattan at the end. That's reminds voters why they gave him a third term. But it may be hard to sustain that good will in the tough budget times ahead. From the state capitol in Albany, for WNYC, I'm Andrea Bernstein.