Governor Hochul and Congestion pricing.

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning, right after New Year’s whether us today is Governor David Pattison fu an update? How do you see the new year? And where are we going? Governor?

0:13 Speaker 2 Well, before we get to the new year, John kind of in the shadows of all the frivolity towards the end of twenty twenty four and then, of course the tragedy that occurred three hours into two twenty twenty five, there was an interesting court decision, and it was an appeals court that set aside an attempt by Lloyd Austin,

0:41 who is the a Secretaryary of State, and he was moving to quash a plea deal agreement for Khalid Sheik Muhammad and the other two masterminds of the September eleventh tragedy. Now, what is just so shocking about this is that the deal to allow them to have life without parole was signed by somebody named Stusan Escalier, who is a senior

1:14 defense official, and Austin said that he didn’t know that this had happened. Now, this takes me back to last week when apparently the MTA tried to slide in a way that on serious days where there was a lot of overcrowding in the city. They could raise the Affairs and Governor Hulkel once you found out about to shut

1:37 the whole thing down. But in this case, nobody did anything and so you know, apparently and this woman made the decision in August. So this just came to light in the last week and Kareem Jean Pierre, the White House Secretary, and Jake I think his name is Sullivan, he’s the head of the NSA, when asked by the

2:07 media about these deals, that they didn’t know anything about it. So this is apparently the new answer that government gives when just doesn’t want to talk about anything that they don’t know anything about it. Well, not knowing anything about it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do something about it when you hear about it. So that’s my treatise on that issue.

2:28 The other issue that we’ve been talking about, of course, the one cats at night, is the steady rise in crime statistics and the generation of fear among New Yorkers who walk the streets, ride the subways, and drive cars around the city.

2:46 Speaker 1 Well, I live in New York City and let me tell you something. After dark, if I’m walking around, I look around to me all the time, you know, the fear is in people’s heart.

3:00 Speaker 2 David, Yeah, it really is. Somebody stopped me in the street about a week ago. They wanted directions to someplace, but when they stopped me, I didn’t really see them coming. It was like abrupt and I thought I was being attacked, and then I had to apologize to the person and that’s it. But that’s where we are right now. And

3:25 I don’t know that there’s any coordinated effort to, you know, make changes that would produce a different result.

3:35 Speaker 1 Oh. That is part of the problem that no matter what politician, city or state is talking about crime in the city, nobody believes anybody about anything.

3:49 Speaker 2 Yeah, what happened, And it’s too bad because in the administration of Michael Bloomberg and continuing to the administervation of former Mayor Bill de Blasio, the numbers were so far down that people did start going out more, did start trusting that they would be safe. And you know a number of people involved would could take credit for that,

4:18 but the fact was that there was a different feeling around the city which has seemingly reversed itself in the last two or three years.

4:29 Speaker 1 Understood, what else do we do a governor. I mean, you were governor, and you know the power of the governor. And when I spoke to the governor a couple of weeks ago, I said to her, the State Senate doesn’t have the ability overrule her anymore, but the State Assembly still does. You explain to new audience how that works well.

4:55 Speaker 2 In the State Senate and in the State Assembly. Back in the seventies, both of them were controlled by the Republican Party, but as the demographics changed into the eighties, the Republicans had a strong control over the State Senate.

5:11 In fact, it was thirty seven Republicans to twenty four Democrats when I got there in nineteen eighty five, and the Democrats in the Assembly had basically sixty percent of the Assembly were Democrats. What’s happened over the years is those numbers have risen and then they became veto proof. Now, what veto proof means is that if you pass a

5:38 bill and an assembly both signed it, and they sent it to the governor’s office, the governor doesn’t like to bill, the governor vetos it. You can override the governor’s veto with a two thirds majority, and the Senate and the Assembly assuming everybody votes.

5:56 Speaker 1 Governor’s veto do you need both.

5:58 Speaker 2 These you said it and the Assembly to override it.

6:03 Speaker 1 And right now, right now, the governor doesn’t have a you know, doesn’t have the ability. The State Senate doesn’t have the ability to override it.

6:14 Speaker 2 Right In other words, the State Senate, unless someone change their vote, doesn’t have the ability to override the governor’s veto.

6:23 Speaker 1 One thing that happened, So she writes an executive order to do something they can’t override her.

6:33 Speaker 2 Well, the executive orders are different. They’re not legislative. They are powers that the governor has by himself in this case, or by herself with Governor Hockel and back in twenty twenty three, and I can’t even remember what it was, but the governor protacky. He annoyed both Sheldon Silver and Joe Bruno, who were the leaders, and we overrode about

6:59 two about one hundred and sixty two of his vetos in the budget and went into the budget anyway. And it was funny because it was first time the two parties ever worked together. And it was to the dismay of the former governor, who did a great job. Well he was a governor, but that was one of his

7:19 tougher weeks.

7:21 Speaker 1 Understood. So, if you were a governor right now, what would you do right now with this crime situation?

7:29 Speaker 2 I think right now there just has to be a greater understanding of the difference between individual freedoms and the different and the protection of the public. So the governor was talking about sending the National Guards to the New York subways. That’s probably not the best system because they’d have to be trained, and the only law enforcement that

7:59 is really for the subway was the Transit Authority, So we get to activate that a little more. So the government is really on the right track when it goes that way, it goes to that place, and then you know, hopefully, I mean I never thought i’d live to say this, but there are are going to have to be stifferent

8:17 penalties and also you know, greater assessment of whether or not a person has really served their time and has changed before they come out on parole. That’s what I would try to do. I think that’s where Governor Hockel is certainly trying to do. You know, issues of how much you know, how much the state has and resources

8:40 to try to implement this is a problem, But it seems to be right now one that’s highlighted so much, and everyone basically understands the crime has increased. There’s got to be some kind of strong effort to stave it off.

9:00 Speaker 1 Anything else you want to tell the American people, the New Yorkers, American people, the world, whatever you’d like. It’s New Year’s we got an open book.

9:11 Speaker 2 Well, John, I’m want to tell you we had two people who were running against each other for president. One of them had to resign last year. But I didn’t think either one of them distinguished themselves early on in the year when President Biden, after the attack where the truck kills at least fifteen people in New Orleans, awaits

9:32 twelve hours and then decides he’s going to convene his national security people, which he did actually on Friday, but you know, he really didn’t say anything that would make anybody feel any safer. And the fact is he’s leaving office in ten days. He really should have just left that for the new president. But not to be outdone,

9:55 the new president blamed the whole attack on Thursday morning on the weakness at the border. Now, the individual that is presumed to have killed the people with the truck on New Year’s morning at three am in the morning.

10:13 That person was an American citizen who grew up in Texas. And the other individual who blew up his truck and himself in front of the hotel, the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, is also an American.

10:26 Speaker 1 So I mean, and they’re both ex military.

10:30 Speaker 2 Does that mean in both ex military, have.

10:32 Speaker 1 They infiltrated has Al Qaida or whoever ices infiltrated on military?

10:38 Speaker 2 You know what I think happens a lot of times there are people they go into military when their service is complete or at a certain point, they just become disengaged and disenfranchised and they start being open to extreme either right wing or extreme left wing groups. In this case, it would appear to be left wing because the guy

10:59 in in the truck had an ISIS sign there. And so, you know, I think we’re really going to have to do something for our veterans and for the people who serve our country because it’s a very difficult job. It’s a lonely job. You’re by yourself a lot, your way from your family, and that’s probably we’re just gonna have

11:24 to take a whole look at that system because it’s producing too many people who act completely opposite the way they were when they first joined the military.

11:35 Speaker 1 Doctor well, Governor David Pattison, thank you so much, and we catch up again with you next week.

11:44 Speaker 2 Thanks so much. John