Less than three weeks before leaving office, lame-duck Gov. Paterson questioned Monday whether Albany is “even governable.”

Appearing on WWRL 1600-AM, Paterson said Gov.-elect Cuomo was elected on a promise to tackle Albany dysfunction and address the fiscal crisis.

“He’s doing all the right things. He’s saying all the right things,” Paterson said of his successor. “But I don’t think one person can change the way government works right now.

“Before everybody starts blaming him the way they blame me, I want everybody to stop before this governor comes into office and assess what is actually the capacity.”

He spoke of headlines that the governor failed to convince the Legislature to do things and asked, “How do you convince the Legislature to do something?”

Cuomo has spoken of getting the public more involved and is also trying to energize the business community to help fight off the traditional special interests.

Meanwhile, a new Siena College poll finds two-thirds of New Yorkers want Cuomo to focus his inaugural address on fiscal matters.

The poll said 44% want to hear about Cuomo’s plans to revitalize the economy while 22% want specifics on what he’ll do to tackle the budget crisis.

The poll also found that 82% think Paterson is doing a poor or fair job as governor.

Paterson predicted a lot of fiscal “pain” going forward and said the state faces another $35 billion to $40 billion in deficit over the next three years.

“I honestly don’t know where we’re going to come up with the resources to reduce the spending,” he said, citing his efforts to cut $42 billion from the budget.

(Source: NY Daily News)