Governor Hochul's reversal on Congestion pricing.

0:00 Speaker 1 With us this Sunday morning is Governor David Patterson, and he has one common sense guy, and so many things happen this week. I don’t even know where to get started. Uh, Governor congestion pricing. Uh, there are people for it and there are people against it. There are news channels for it, and they make and they make sure they only interview

0:25 people that are are for it, and there are news channels against it, and they only interview people that are against it. What the hell is the hell is going on in uh in you know in common sense news broadcasting?

0:40 Speaker 2 Well, John, I know Friday night you spoke at Hostin University and I’m sure uh that that they understood that that there’s a real issue about freedom of speech and freedom of opportunity to speak, which is you know, you would think particularly an issue this controversial that has been bandied about for sixteen years. I was actually there in

1:04 two thousand and eight when Mayor Bloomberg with an assist from Mayor Schwarzenegger Governor Schwarzeneger from California, originally announced the congestion pricing idea. It really got pushed back after Hurricane Sandy. It seemed to be renovated by Governor Crmo. Then there were problems with him and Andy Byfort from the MTA.

1:31 But after all these years and so close to the June thirtieth deadline, Governor Hogel has decided that this is not a good thing for New Yorkers. And what she told me in a private conversation was she just thought about people who were afraid to ride the subway, so they drive their old, beat up car over the bridge,

1:51 and they have to pay all this money, And she was thinking really of individuals who would be affected. Now the fact that she makes a decision at this particular time, those who would be antagonistic to her have tried to say that this is actually a political move that a lot of the Democrats who are running in June don’t

2:12 need to have to be defending congestion pricing to try to retain their seats in the Democrats in the House trying to win the majority in New York is where they lost the majority, so they’re going to be some important races there. But I think that’s kind of calo to at this point, with all that is involved, to

2:33 think that the government just turn around and do it just to win a few political seats. I think that she who comes from a kind of town where everybody gets to speak up in Buffalo, that sort of thing.

2:46 I think she took this position because she realized that some of the problems that the antagonists to congestion pricing or raising are not going to go away. And actually what we found a day after one Thursday is that it didn’t even go away for a day because they had to put in a bill for another or three

3:09 quarters of a billion dollars to try to fill in the gap the congestion pricing would have filled. So this is an ongoing situation. But I think the governor made a good decision, and I think if you make a good decision, inevitably it will be a good political decision.

3:28 Speaker 1 No, I agree with you. I didn’t think it was the right time to do congestion pricing in Manhattan and punish the other boroughs in the other counties. And because you know, our economy is still we have problems. But why the people that are pro congestion pricing are out there yelling and screaming. Who are these people?

3:56 Speaker 2 Well, they were environmentally conscious legislators, and I don’t blame them for being that that’s what they are, and they thought there were some ways to kind of decrease the negative air quality that Manhattan in particular suffers from and actually spreads to around the whole city. And they also, I think, were arguing that nearly half a billion dollars

4:28 has already been spent putting the cameras up and making the arrangements for what would have been the June thirtieth launch that would have been on Sunday, June thirtieth, that that would be the beginning of congestion pricing. So they see that as a waste of money, and maybe, you know, it is a lot of money. But if congestion pricing

4:51 was going to wound up, wind up in the peril that so many people described that the MTA would never be able to get the amount of money of projecting that they would get, then even if this decision the government made was costly, it’s still the right decision.

5:10 Speaker 1 No, I agree with you one hundred percent. What other categories we have a few momentutes and what are the categories you lose sleepover?

5:23 Speaker 2 This particular week is kind of you know, it’s kind of interesting. We’re in the aftermath of this shocking I don’t know what it was shocking, but the jury decision with respect to President Trump, and it’s clear that both the former president and the president would really like to get back to the issues of the campaign. And just

5:54 remember there’s going to be very shortly a debate between the two of them, and I think it will be a very important debate for President Trump to you know, focus on the campaign and if necessary, he can you know, try to score points that this was a political conviction.

6:18 At the same time, I think President Biden has got to demonstrate that he’s in charge, that he’s lucid, that he’s making critical decisions, and that he can do it for the next four years. So I’ve been sort of thinking about how that debate might play on. The one thing that people are saying that I really dispute is

6:41 that if Biden has a bad debate, that they’ll have to take him off the ticket. That will not happen. In twenty twenty, Trump had a kind of a tough time because Biden was was rude and agitated in the first debate, and I think it threw President Trump off, but nobody talked about taking him off the ticket, and

7:02 in this particular case, if he has a bad night, well it just confirms what some people think about him. But if he has a good knight, which he has surprised people and done, you know, in these types of situations before, then we’re in for a hotly contested summer and fall.

7:21 Speaker 1 I believe that if the debate takes place, which I’m not sure of yet, that both the presidents should take the high road and discuss the issues and leave you know, personal matters pieces behind and discussing the issues because America has to make a decision which way America is heading.

7:44 Speaker 2 And well, you know, John, I got a lot of criticism last week when I raised the idea, and it was actually Bill O’Reilly who raised it with us, the idea that if President Biden were to pardon President Trump, because come on, this wasn’t the climb of the century.

8:02 He’s not going to jail for like ten years or something like that, that it would have really reset the mood of this country to start thinking more about our economy and the border.

8:14 Speaker 1 And I agree with you. I agree with you, and I wouldn’t hey and I Governor, I wouldn’t matter to me if he pardons his son, because any father would pardon.

8:27 Speaker 2 The son right now. He said that he wouldn’t, which is I’ll tell you it took some courage to say something like that. But at the same time, you know, we’re in a situation right now where our problems are so much bigger than what Hunter Biden did or even what President Trump did, that we really need to get

8:53 away from this and get back to the to the subject. And that’s what I thought it would do. Also politically for President Biden, it would really be controversial, but it would have really made a strong statement about how confident he is that he’s going to get reelected. But you know that’s he didn’t do it. That’s neither here nor there.

9:14 But it was just something that I thought was very creative, and you know mentioned it last week, and.

9:25 Speaker 1 Governor, I will tell you the way I feel. I don’t mind. I don’t care if Hunter Biden got five million, ten million. What I do care about that that five or ten million was not used in the for the purpose of having undue influence on the American people and costing the American people of trillion dollars in other forms

9:50 of problems with China or Iran or Ukraine.

9:57 Speaker 2 That’s why the trial over the gun is really not the issue. It would be whether or not he played by the rules when he was acting apparently on behalf of foreign governments.

10:11 Speaker 1 And we still don’t know the truth.

10:13 Speaker 2 It doesn’t matter who it was. If they did that, it needs to be you know, looked into.

10:20 Speaker 1 And I’ve said before and we’ll end on this, that the FBI knows the truth and should not be handcuffed by any particular Democratic party or Republican party. The Democrat the FBI has to be independent to tell the truth, not because because they are Americans, and not because of Democrats or Republicans. Absolutely, Governor, thank you for this Sunday morning.

10:50 I always enjoy our discussions and uh and we and we both have common sense and common sense must prevail in the world.

10:59 Speaker 2 Enjoy the rest of weekend, John, you too,