By Rick Karlin

Amid crisis, state pays $21,000 for mansion rug

Gov. David Paterson’s energetic response to the state budget crisis has been the hallmark of his tenure, but even as he was ordering state agencies to cut their spending and warning of even tougher times ahead, his Office of General Services was buying a $21,000 custom-stitched 10-foot-by-15-foot antique carpet for the governor’s mansion.

News of the purchase, from a New York City firm that had contributed at least $8,000 to the Spitzer/Paterson campaign, was seized upon by critics who have questioned some of the governor’s budget-cutting plans.

“They should cut the waste first before they come and ask us for concessions,” said Darcy Wells, spokeswoman for the Public Employees Federation, a state workers union.

Paterson wants state workers to forego next year’s 3 percent raise and accept a “lag pay” plan in which they give up five days salary until retirement; Paterson has warned the eventual deficit could swell to $15 billion over the next 14 months.

The rug, ordered from Stark Carpet on Third Avenue in New York City, was shipped July 31, according to payment records and invoices. Earlier that week, Paterson ordered a second round of cuts for state agencies, bringing the reduction to 10 percent.

In a statement, OGS spokesman Brad Maione noted the building, also known as the Executive Mansion, is a kind of museum as well as the residence for Paterson and his family when they’re not in New York City.

“It serves as a public space that in many ways is a museum — open to thousands of visitors and school children each year,” said Maione, who added that more than 6,000 people have visited the mansion during the past few years.

“This historic landmark requires ongoing maintenance and upkeep,” said Maione, who added that a total of four rugs were purchased for the building this year at a total cost of $37,741.

That’s not to say that people can wander into the 19th-century mansion as if it were the State Museum: When the Times Union on Wednesday asked permission to get a photograph of the carpet, the request was denied — with Paterson spokesman Morgan Hook citing security reasons.

Unless there is a designated event, the Eagle Street mansion is generally off-limits to the public, and guarded by State Police officers.

Blair Horner, legislative director for the New York Public Interest Research Group, said the mansion may have needed a new rug — but the larger question centers on the symbolism of such a purchase.

“Does this send the wrong signal? I think the answer is a resounding yes,” Horner said. “When the state is tightening its belt, I think that should apply to expensive rugs, no matter how useful. At the same time that the governor is proposing cuts to education and health care, the symbolic decision is a bad one.”

Described as a “Turkish patchwork collection (made of antique rugs in Turkey)” the carpet sold for $16,811.25, according to an invoice obtained from the state Comptrollers Office.

There was an additional $4,350 for labor, supplies and decorative stitch work.

Stark Carpet Corp. contributed $3,000 to the Spitzer/Paterson gubernatorial campaign in 2005 and 2006. The firm also gave $5,000 in 2003, according to state records.

While stressing that she was not familiar with the mansion’s rug, Lucille Laufer of the Oriental Rug Importers Association, a New Jersey-based trade group, said that Turkish rugs have been in vogue lately.

“It’s a warm look, and people are really migrating toward that now,” she said.