Over the last few months, Gov. David Paterson of New York has been handing out gloomier and gloomier news. Confronted with a huge budget deficit and an economy getting shakier by the day, he has announced plans to slash or at least defer almost everybody’s favorite state program. But on Wednesday, in his first State of the State address since taking over in March from Eliot Spitzer, Governor Paterson talked about things he wanted to do, not undo.

Though the state of the state is “perilous,” he said, this is exactly the wrong time to hunker down and accomplish nothing. He pointedly reminded his audience of fellow lawmakers that New York had done great things in hard times. Construction on the Empire State Building, he noted, began as the nation was sliding into the Great Depression.

Mr. Paterson’s low-budget wish list is full of compelling new ideas on energy, health care, obesity and other difficult issues. In the past, we would have warned that his biggest problem might be pushing New York’s notoriously difficult Legislature to go along. But this year, both legislative chambers are dominated by his fellow Democrats. That should make progress vastly easier, but it also should make it impossible for Democrats to blame Republicans if something does not get done.

Like his two immediate predecessors, Mr. Paterson chose to emphasize energy. The most ambitious item on his agenda may be a plan he calls “45 by 15.” The state would produce 30 percent of its energy from renewable sources like wind, solar and hydropower by 2015, while achieving a 15 percent reduction in energy consumption in the same time frame by investing in efficiency.

These are worthy goals, especially since the plan includes innovative proposals to reward energy companies for saving energy instead of selling more of it. And as part of his plan to revive a sagging economy, Mr. Paterson proposed turning upstate New York’s old industrial belt into a national center for creating and producing new hybrid automobile batteries. Today’s batteries have limited range and are a stumbling block to widespread acceptance of hybrid cars.

Mr. Paterson also spoke at length about health care. One important proposal would allow employees to expand private health care coverage to dependents up to age 29, a quick way of providing health coverage for an age group that is notoriously underinsured.

Given the power of the food and soft-drink lobbies in Albany, Mr. Paterson set himself a daunting challenge by pledging to fight the alarming rate of diabetes, especially among the young. To combat obesity, he would expand statewide some of most successful changes made by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in New York City, including a ban on trans fats and the requirement that chain restaurants post calorie counts. The governor also wants a surcharge on sugary drinks, a statewide ban on junk foods in schools and a better way of getting healthier foods or green markets in poorer areas.

Mr. Paterson promised to reform the outdated, counterproductive Rockefeller drug laws and provide more loans for college-bound students. Both proposals should be easier to pass in a Democratic-led Legislature. Less easy will be his proposal to cap property taxes, which many lawmakers understandably regard as a popular but flawed idea.

The most glaring omission was any plan for real political reform. He did not mention the need to change the campaign finance system or the scandalous way legislators draw their own districts. This was a missed opportunity in an otherwise promising summons to confront New York’s historic challenges.