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New York's Governor announced that he would ask state agencies to start choosing positions to be eliminated on January 1. The first of the year is the end of the no-layoffs pledge that Paterson made to public employees unions in exchange for reducing pension costs. It is also the day that he leaves office, and his successor will have the final word on any cuts. Paterson said that layoffs were the only way to get the $25o million in cost reduction that they needed from the public workers, and that he wanted the plan to be in place for his successor. A spokesman for the Civil Service Employees Association, which represents around 70,000 state employees, said that the payroll savings that would be achieved were a drop in the bucket, and that they would end up being counterproductive. This latest plan to reduce costs comes a week after Paterson's plan for furloughs was rejected by a federal judge. The state faces a $9.2 billion deficit, and legislators have not been able to agree on a budget.