Governor says state workers will get paychecks on time

PHOTOGRAPHER: The Associated Press

Gov. David Paterson says that even though a deadline was missed, all state workers will get their paychecks on Wednesday as scheduled.

Paterson says state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli worked his staff on overtime to process all 153,000 paychecks due Wednesday and made sure banks credited their customers’ accounts.

In the midst of passing a large emergency spending bill, the Legislature missed a 5 p.m. Monday deadline that threatened at least some of the checks.

DiNapoli had warned state workers to examine their account balances before writing checks on Wednesday.

The $270 million appropriation was part of the latest weekly spending bill that keeps the state running while the budget, which was due April 1, remains under negotiation.