Paul Francis, the director of State Operations for Governors Paterson and Spitzer, has resigned, the governor’s office announced today. In the Paterson administration, Mr. Francis provided oversight to many key development projects in the state, trying to sort out the mess at Moynihan Station, among others.

Former colleagues generally held him in high regard as a policy-focused good-government type, though he was said to clash with others close to the governor.

Toward the end of this legislative session, he was a key figure in negotiating the state’s incentive package in a casino resort planned for the Catskills.

Last week, before a deal was eventually reached, we asked Senator John Bonacic, who represents the area, what the holdup was to a three-way deal between the Assembly, Senate and governor’s office.  read more »

I just got off the phone a few minutes ago with Paul Francis, Eliot Spitzer’s top aide and newly minted director of operations. Francis said he doubts the capital budget from last year will be settled by the time the governor presents his executive budget on January 22 next year.

“I would say at this stage it’s highly unlikely that there will be a capital budget before the executive budget is introduced," Francis told me.

Francis, who helped craft Spitzer’s first budget last year, said this budget will be tougher, and that having an on-time budget is a secondary consideration.

“It’s probably fair to say the more difficult the budget, the harder it is to have an on-time budget. I think this will be a more difficult budget than last year because of the decline in revenues due to Wall Street problems." He added, "The governor said on a number of occasions, he thinks having a good budget is more important than having an on-time budget.”

Here's part of a dramatically worded letter sent today by Democratic Assembly members from Westchester to Paul Francis, the governor's budget director, about the new school funding formula:

"We racked our brains to find a single example of the use of the education formula to harm an individual municipality. We often find ways to single out a community for help. Never before, never before has a community been singled out for harm. It is a terrible precedent that once unleashed, can be turned against a community that has fallen from political favor, or which is sacrificed on the alter of expediency, even if that expediency is a timely budget, as you suggest in your letter."

The entire letter is here.

One line that caught my attention so far is how Spitzer described funding that some health care institutions received so far. He described is as a "pipeline, almost an unending pipeline of state largess."

Alan Hevesi responds to his settlement with the AG's office by saying that most of the chauffering for his wife was "related to her security."

Eliot Spitzer's adviser, Paul Francis, said that health care is one of the greatest challenges facing the new governor.

Mitt Romney, John Edwards and Tom Vilsack all made hires for their presumed presidential campaigns.

Andrew Sullivan is less annoying than Kos, according to a new poll.

And pictured above is the room at Gracie Mansion where the mayor hosted his party for City Hall reporters last night.

Starting at 8:20 a.m., former governors Bill Weld and Jim Florio join incoming state budget director Paul Francis at a panel discussion on "Governing Change: Policy, Politics and the Spitzer Administration" at The New School.

At 10 a.m., the Governance and Audit Committee of the NYC Center Operating Corporation will meet at the Javits Center.

At noon, there's a protest outside the Iranian mission to the U.N.

And the holiday parties of DL21C, Queens DA Richard Brown, and The New York County Lawyers' Association will be taking place.

Rich Baum, executive director Paul Francis, policy director Francine James, appointment director

Richard Parsons Peter Goldmark, Jr Elizabeth Moore Lloyd Constantine Hunter Rawlings Rosanna Rosado

First, there was Mario Cuomo, who doesn't often show up at this sort of thing.