Being a monetary conservative, Mr. Hayes was against involving the central banking system to help fiscally troubled cities.

In the past two years, Nassau County's fiscally troubled health care agency revamped itself, refinanced its debt, cut 900 jobs, changed presidents and planned to break even by the end of 2005.

Unlike other fiscally troubled municipalities, Nassau County has not suffered a significant loss of population, industry or tax base.

Given the stated goal, the administration should support fiscally troubled schools and should aid, rather than hinder, the efforts of the Environmental Protection Agency to protect our environment.

Nine years after starting a loan-assistance program to help steer lawyers to low-paying public-interest jobs, Columbia Law School officials are considering cutting it back, saying it may be too generous in fiscally troubled times.

The evenly divided Senate is the focus of the budget dispute, which has dominated the second fiscally troubled year for Governor McGreevey, a Democrat.

Mr. Giuliani's aides say that the public must come to understand that New York is in a fiscally troubled transition and that these budget cuts will ultimately make it competitive with other states.

It also raises a question with citywide implications: How can a fiscally troubled city's need for the tax revenues that accompany redevelopment be reconciled with widespread neighborhood feelings that the changes are for the worse.

Perhaps more than any other factor, Mr. Corzine's appeal to voters in this fiscally troubled state was his Wall Street pedigree and his business acumen.

"I don't think the governor has any objection to reforming the tax structure," he said, referring to the commuter tax, and he expressed confidence that Mr. Pataki would come through for the fiscally troubled city in the final budget.