I was impressed with Governor David Paterson when he took over from his disgraced predecessor. And I've been inclined to cut him some slack in the past few weeks, even with his handling of Clinton's Senate seat. But good grief: the same governor who is warning of a budget crisis gives huge raises to his own staff?

Paterson has insisted that state workers to give up their 3 percent raises. And he has dug in his heels on his budget proposal, arguing that with the state's financial problems, we must accept cuts in crucial programs.

But for the folks close to him, it's Christmas - and these aren't people who were making peanuts to begin with. The New York Post, which broke the story yesterday, says Paterson gave his top aide a 5 percent raise. The new salary: $178,500. One of the aide's deputies (and, the Post says, "a personal friend of the governor's) got an 11.25 percent raise with a bump to a new position. A confidential assistant got a 46 percent raise. Old salary: $85,721. New salary: $125,000. An assistant counsel: a 6 percent raise, to $130,279. Others got raises of more than 20 percent.

Paterson's argument, according to the Democrat and Chronicle this morning, is that he has shrunk the size of his executive staff. These people, he says, have taken on more work.

Welcome to life in the hinterlands, governor. Lots of Americans - those who still have jobs - are intimately familiar with heavier workloads. They just haven't gotten nice pay raises in the process.