ALBANY — What’s Gov. Paterson got to celebrate?
Just hours before delivering news of soaring budget deficits and lagging revenues from the recent millionaire’s tax, the party-hearty Paterson was spotted hobnobbing at a Chelsea hot spot with “new BFF” Russell Simmons and others from the hip-hop set.
The night-owl chief executive reportedly lingered for hours at the West 21st Street nightclub Taj, which was the site of several overlapping cocktail parties, including an invitation-only birthday bash for BET executive Rhonda Cowan, a longtime Paterson friend.
Stagnant poll numbers, lackluster campaign fund-raising and the threat of a challenge within his own party didn’t keep the Democratic governor from enjoying himself at the midweek fiesta.
“God’s Favorite MC,” Frank Jugga, contributed “mike flava,” and music promoter Dontay Thompson leaped on a table. Hot 97 deejay Funkmaster Flex was there, too.
Just hours later, Paterson called on the Legislature to address a yawning budget gap that has swelled to $2.1 billion in just three months.
The governor blamed his latest bleak forecast, which pushes the state’s budget gap to $38.2 billion over the next four years, on plunging tax collections and job losses.
Plummeting tax revenues were behind much of the shortfall.
In the first three months of this fiscal year, income-tax collections fell 35 percent, to $7.7 billion, compared with the same period last year. The drop was $584 million below estimates set in April, when the governor and the Legislature agreed to a $8 billion tax-and-fee package.
Budget officials said revenues from the $3.9 billion millionaire’s tax have lagged behind projections.
Last year, the state collected about $1 billion from top earners. Those collections may now come in at only $500 million, lower than forecast last spring.
Officials said it could be due to changes in the way the wealthy are reporting their income, the possibility that some have moved out of state, or that they are earning less.
Given the state of the economy, one Brooklyn blogger, Tionna Smalls, who outed Paterson with a call to Gawker.com after leaving the party herself, was not amused.
“I mean it’s a nice event for a regular person like me that’s going to come up — but not for a governor,” Smalls told The Post.
Smalls, who co-stars in an upcoming VH1 reality show with Rozonda “Chili” Thomas, of TLC, and Sandra “Pepa” Denton, of Salt-N-Pepa, said Paterson should be busy working to fix the state’s economy.
“I have some advice for him: Stay his ass out the clubs,” Smalls said.
Paterson has become a regular on the cocktail-party circuit since taking over for hooker-happy ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer.
In recent weeks, Page Six spies have spotted him at at least two Hamptons gatherings, including a pool party at Simmons’ house. Smalls described the impresario as Paterson’s “new BFF.”
Several who attended the Chelsea bash said Paterson stayed until 1 a.m., but a friend of Cowan’s insisted the governor “mostly posed for photos” and left before midnight.
Paterson brought his 21-year-old stepdaughter, Ashley, to the soirée, sources said.
He was drinking the nightspot’s sugary Elderflower cocktails ($14) and sat in a booth in the back between mugging for photos with guests. The governor stood out as the only guest warning a suit.
Marissa Shorenstein, a spokeswoman for Paterson, refused to answer questions about whether the eve of a woeful budget announcement was an appropriate time to party.
Additional reporting by Amber Sutherland