Is Governor Hochul losing budget battle?

0:00 Speaker 1 With us today is Governor David Patterson, and he keeps his ears to the ground. He knows mostly what’s going on in Aubany, New York, Washington, and he’s got a common sense head on his shoulders. Governor Patterson, what are you here for this week? This is another weekend? This is a Greek Orthodox Easter. You know, we can make

0:25 you part Greek, you know.

0:27 Speaker 2 Oh well, yes, well, happy Easter, John. And it’s not such a happy Easter in Albany because now they are officially sixteen days late from the budget. And what I think to be fair is what Governor Pataki said on the Caatsain Cosby show last week, where you and I were both there, is that a good budget is better

0:57 than a law. A good budget is better than an on time budget. And ow there was a budget that takes a while to work at. We had that problem, and you.

1:08 Speaker 1 Had a lot of experience that way. You held it up until you got your way because you felt it was better for the for our for our citizens in New York.

1:23 Speaker 2 Well, that did happen. It was my last year. The legislature regarded me as a lame duck, so they gave me a budget. It was five hundred thousand dollars in debt, and I told them, we five hundred million dollars in debt.

1:37 What am I talking about? Oh take a million, Yeah, I’m gonna take a couple of hundred million. And I told them this is not horseshoes. You have to balance the budget. Because a state sentner named Liz Krueger said to me, that’s close enough. No, it’s not close enough.

1:52 The constitution says it has to be balanced. Well, then when they refused to balance it, I told them that they didn’t balance a budget. I was going to be to every one of their member items and they called me on it, and they actually sent the member item over on paper sheets in boxes that were four and

2:11 a half feet tall. We put them on a table and they almost went up to the ceiling. And I sat there for eight and a half hours and signed every veto for each bill so that they would get the message, and then we finally got the budget passed.

2:25 I am not recommending that Governor Hulk will do this right now, this is the second year of her passing a budget as governor. This is her first year as an elected governor for four years. She’s going to be up there with them for at least three more years.

2:43 I think that her deliberative way of just trying to have compromise, and she gave them a judge who’s excellent. So was the last one, by the way, but she gave them a judge who the legislature will confirm. So things are starting to calm down there, and I think she can take advantage of the inertia inherent that things

3:05 are not as crazy as they were a couple of months ago, and maybe they have a chance to do something. But I think her her progress is going to be measured against Dale Reform, as it has with Mayor Adams, as it was with you know, other candidates for office.

3:25 And I think that the legislature really owes her a break because around this state people are very upset about increases in crime. And as I’ve said before, it isn’t just increases in crime, because crime was much higher thirty years ago. It’s the proximity of crime. There are crimes being committed in places you wouldn’t have dreamed could have

3:50 happened many years ago.

3:52 Speaker 1 You know, Governor Patterson, it’s almost out of control. People. Four hundred year, eighty four thousand, New Yorkers have left New York. And according to the last few days, there was a survey that of New Yorkers or was it twenty seven percent of New Yorkers are considering leaving over the next five years. I mean, you know, how stupid

4:19 can some of these legislators be.

4:23 Speaker 2 You’ve got to estimate that the people who are considering leaving can afford to leave. There may be a lot of people who’d like to leave, but they really can’t afford it. And if they can afford to leave, it means that they are probably the highest taxpayers in the state.

4:41 That’s or maybe not the highest, but you know they’re right up there. This reduces our revenues, This impacts on our ability to provide safety to our constituents, and this kills all of the I Love New York sort of campaigns for tourism, because not only will people leave here, they won’t come here even on vacation.

5:13 Speaker 1 That’s what I’m scared of. I don’t want to lose our country. I don’t want to lose our city. I don’t want to lose our state. I mean, I love living here. And the other big item that all of a sudden because my age is getting up there, I’m much older than you. Is that they’re saying that at

5:34 the age of seventy five that you’re paying full taxes on inheritance or the divest of of your trusts or whatever. Versus Florida there’s zero tax. What do you hear about that?

5:55 Speaker 2 Well, I’ve heard about that, and I think we may have just accounted for maybe two hundred of the fifty of the nearly five hundred thousand people who have left because there is that encumbrance placed on people based on their ability to pass their inheritance. The general feeling is that seven thousand people are paying half of all the

6:22 taxes that everybody pays in New York. So it’s a top heavy state with very very very wealthy people and then a shrinking middle class and a lot of people who aren’t making that much money. And the problem is when you start to have a place like that, it actually reverses what made New York City so great. John

6:44 In the eighteen twenty census, New York was three percent of the national population and three percent of the economic development. By eighteen forty, new York was now forty was forty six percent of the economic development and now it was thirteen percent of the national population. That’s because the people moved where the jobs were, where the opportunities were. What

7:12 was seeing now are statistics that show they’re moving away.

7:19 Speaker 1 That’s you know, there’s just so much that that the budget can take it, because we have things on our budget like pensions, et cetera, et cetera. At what point does it blow up?

7:32 Speaker 2 Well, it’s becoming more and more difficult, and I think that there’s a little bit of a naive cave. Some people don’t want to recognize that it’s actually happening. They’ll be the first to the first to start screaming when we actually get to a point where we can’t pay our debts and debt starts to rise, as it did

7:56 in the mid nineties, and that didn’t help New York at that time at all.

8:01 Speaker 1 You’re absolutely right, absolutely right. Any good news in the and your thoughts this weekend of oh, you know, the weather is great. What good thoughts do you have?

8:16 Speaker 2 Well, the weather is great. They had a little parade for bagpipeers on Saturday from forty second Street to fifty second Street. Of course, the parade again today is you know, is going to be pretty exciting, and you know, we had a week where you would have thought we were in the middle of July rather than the middle of April.

8:45 Speaker 1 Well, no, I haven’t been to my beach house in in five months, so look, I look forward to having a good weekend. We had a minute left. What else would you like to say? What’s going on in New York City? In New York City, Well.

9:00 Speaker 2 I think it’s you know, kind of encouraging that Mayor Adams in particular seems to be settling in. You know, he’s not being followed every night to find out where he eats and that kind of thing. And his policies, you know, he’s sticking by them, and he, more than any other elected official right now, is acknowledging not just

9:25 the crime problem, but the severity of it. And I think that, looking now be coming up one a year and a half of the service in a couple of months, that he’s done very well.

9:39 Speaker 1 Understood well, Governor David Patterson, thank you for your input, and look forward to spending some summer weekends together and we’ll catch up again real soon.

9:51 Speaker 2 Sounds great, John, Thank you,