Advocates of the poor called today for Governor Spitzer to make ending hunger and poverty a priority for his administration. Speakers at the 18th annual People’s State of the State in front of the state Capitol said that poverty was a rampant problem throughout the state, particularly in upstate cities. “We started this event 18 years ago because the reality of poverty and hunger are often overlooked in the Governor’s formal state of the state address. For sixteen years, under both Mario Cuomo and George Pataki, people on welfare have fallen deeper and deeper into poverty. The tax burden has been shifted onto poor and moderate-income families while their real wages have either fallen or stagnated. Meanwhile the state’s efforts on job creation have increasingly focused on handing out corporate welfare checks for politically connected CEOs, with little accountability to ensure that jobs are actually created,” said Mark Dunlea of the Hunger Action Network, the principal organizer of the event.