When governors give their annual State of the State address, much like the president’s State of the Union, it’s generally an occasion for self-indulgent praise and swelling the ranks of mutual admiration societies. Not so in New York this year, where Governor David Paterson took to the podium to scold the state legislature – both houses of which are controlled by his own Democratic Party – for the way they have spent their way to the precipice of disaster. We can debate the political wisdom of his decision all we like, but I must say it was refreshing to say the least.

Dispensing with the ritualized flattery that typically precedes the annual address, Mr. Paterson said that the Legislature’s reluctance to make hard decisions and rein in its own excesses had plunged the state even deeper into crisis.

“You have left me and other governors no choice,” Mr. Paterson, the former State Senate minority leader, said. “Whether it be by vetoes or delayed spending, I will not write bad checks, and we will not mortgage our children’s future.”

To say that his comments were met with less than enthusiasm would be to put it mildly.

The public scolding drew a cold response from lawmakers, who gave Mr. Paterson little applause and rose from their chairs only when he entered and exited the Assembly chamber.

Some sat stony-faced during the speech, while others fidgeted with BlackBerrys.

It’s been no secret that New York’s failure to stimulate any sort of job growth in the private sector was, at least in part, because of their gobbling up of the federal porkulus dollars to patch up gaping holes in the state budget. As that money is rapidly exhausted, the same old budget problems are swelling up and leading to a more than $7B shortfall expected in 2010. Still, nobody has been willing to make the hard choices required to change this pattern.

Is there any political sense to Paterson’s approach to the speech? That’s hard to say. His numbers have been hovering in the twenties and thirties for some time now and the conventional wisdom is that he couldn’t win reelection this year even if the GOP ran an incontinent poodle against him. But Andrew Cuomo is hovering in the background with approval ratings in the 70’s and the Republicans have thus far failed to find a candidate to challenge him besides Rick Lazio, who is still struggling with name recognition problems.

So Paterson may be taking a wild swing for the fences to find a new base of appeal by tackling a difficult problem and challenging his own party. Or perhaps he has just read the writing on the wall, knows that his days are numbered and is just enjoying the chance to throw caution to the wind and speak his mind for a change. Either way, it was good to have someone stand up in public and put the bell on the cat. New York’s management of the public purse is entirely dysfunctional and it’s long past time that this fact was shoved in the faces of the voters.