US News

DAVE HAS SECOND THOUGHTS ON PAY HIKES

ALBANY – Gov. Paterson was on the defensive yesterday as he all but conceded he shouldn’t have given secret pay hikes to top aides in the midst of a fiscal crisis.

“Now, is it a good discussion that perhaps at this time in history with our economic problems that symbolically . . . we don’t perhaps give any more money than they were making before?” asked Paterson.

“That’s a discussion that could be had, and I’d like to see what all the other agencies are doing, and perhaps collectively, we will all make that pledge,” added the governor, who has asked 130,000 unionized state workers to give up 3 percent pay hikes.

His comments came in response to The Post’s disclosure Monday that he had granted pay hikes of as much as 46 percent to more than a dozen staffers.