E.J. McMahon of the Manhattan Institute’s Empire Center for New York State Policy, which recently issued its Blueprint for a Better Budget asks in his column in the New York Post -” Who can impose financial control on the state itself?”

In his State of the State mes sage in January, Gov. Pater son announced that Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch would “take the lead in [developing] a four-year plan for fiscal recovery.”

Since few believed Paterson would still be in office after 2010, it seemed the lieutenant governor had embarked on an academic exercise with little relevance to this year’s budget process. Now, however, Ravitch’s project is about to become much more relevant.

Ravitch reportedly had been planning to unveil his first recommendations this week — a schedule that may now have to accommodate a transition to the governor’s office (or then again, maybe not, based on Paterson’s declared intention to stay put).

A key question either way: Will Ravitch put a deficit borrowing option on the table?
A hint to that effect appeared in the Feb. 28 New York Times profile of the lieutenant governor: The article recounted a phone call he took from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, asking about “a rumor that Mr. Ravitch supported the state’s taking on more debt.”

To read the rest of the Column click here.