Governor David Paterson is calling his plan to close a $7.4-billion budget gap in 2010-11 a "recovery budget."

The $134 billion proposal, he said during a speech this morning, increases overall spending by less than 1 percent, and includes but is not limited to cuts to education, health care, and state agency spending, while also delaying the full implementation of a public assistance grant increase.

He implored legislators to act with him on the plans so that future governors and legislators won't have to.

"Nobody wants to make these cuts," Paterson said.

There are a lot of details tied up in his proposal, and the governor's laid out his plan here. But here are some of the key points:

• The plan contains $1.1 billion cut in education funding. That's a 5-percent decrease from the 2009-10 plan, he said. Freezing foundation aid for 2010-11 and 2011-12 is part of that proposal. Foundation aid is the primary form of aid that the state provides to school districts.
  
• Paterson also proposes cutting state payments to hospitals and other providers, as well as stepping up Medicaid fraud recovery for $1 billion in savings. Another $900 million from new taxes on cigarettes and sugary soft drinks will further offset health-care costs, he said.
• He used the budget to push for a spending cap, which would limit budget increases to the rate of inflation. He argues that a spending cap would result in a surplus at the end of 2011-2012.
• The budget calls for cuts to the SUNY and CUNY systems, as well as a $75 cut to TAP grants. But Paterson also wants to take the process of setting tuition for public colleges out of the budget process and, instead, let the SUNY and CUNY boards set tuition policies.
• The governor also figures the state could make approximately $32.9 million by using speed enforcement cameras.