NY's Paterson: He and Spitzer vowed not to hike taxes

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York's incoming Democratic governor, Lt. Governor David Paterson, said on Thursday he and Gov. Eliot Spitzer promised not to raise the state's personal income taxes when they ran for office in 2006.

Speaking at his first news conference since Spitzer announced his resignation on Wednesday, Paterson said: "Gov. Spitzer made a promise to the public that both he and I believed we don't want to raise the personal income tax."

The Democratic-led Assembly has proposed raising $1.5 billion by increasing personal income taxes for the 70,000 millionaires who work in New York. Spitzer rejected the plan.

"We are looking at a recession, and I think the stock market's in flux, our major investment houses are under siege, our banks are in a sense borrowing from other countries. We have a huge economic problem in this country," said Paterson, who takes office on Monday.

He added: "I don't know when that will become an issue, but I'm hoping that it won't be in the near future."

(Reporting by Joan Gralla; Editing by Dan Grebler)