In this article - http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/For-starters-a-little-off-top-935393.php - the TU tells us that there is "a looming budget gap of at least $9 billion." And that "Cuomo's state worker pay freeze could save between $200 million and $400 million."

If I have all my zeros correct, that pay freeze amounts to 4% of the state budget deficit.

I think it's safe to say that this 4% of "savings" will dominate the media coverage. There will be talk about how Cuomo is battling the unions. There will be commentary by conservative PR firms and by randomly selected citizens who are willing to be quoted about high taxes and/or bloated government.

(I put savings in quotes up there, because it seems to me a poor assumption that taking money away from residents, taking money out of the economy, actually saves the state money. Less money in state pay, less money to the consumer economy, less money in tax revenue to the state. But what do I know, I'm just a layman.)

This 4% of the deficit will come to take up, let's say, 80 to 90% of the media coverage.

This leads to an obvious question. What about the other 96% of the deficit?