State budget hefty deficits.

0:00 Speaker 1 With us today is former Governor David Pattison, and he is one knowledgeable person what’s going on in a city, or state or country. Good morning, Governor Pattison, how are you today?

0:12 Speaker 2 Good morning John. And to start off today, you and I have been invited to present at a forum involving real estate and business all around the metropolitan area New York City, Long Island, even Westchester, New Jersey, that kind of thing. And they had a little conversation with us about what they wanted to talk about. And I was

0:35 really surprised because I thought the first thing that they would mention is Article forty twenty Article forty twenty one, a exemption to developers who would be building housing in dense areas, and the fact that more and more it’s become affordable housing, which doesn’t work for the developers. But that wasn’t the first thing they mentioned. I thought they

1:00 might talk about the encumbrances that these businesses suffered during the pandemic when there were lighter penalties for late rent or evictions. They didn’t want to talk about that either. Then the issue of crime, I thought they’d raise that.

1:15 They didn’t raise that at all. What they raised is that the Albity politicians, as they put it, have no understanding of real estate development or business, have a total resentment against people who do it, and that it is causing them to make their lives more miserable. And I just thought that that was kind of interesting because when

1:39 I first went to the legislature and I was the third youngest state senator in New York’s history, I just turned thirty, and at that time, you know, I probably had that point of view that a lot of young people have, particularly when they’re in college or you know, just starting out, but learned later on that it really

2:02 was the backbone of the city’s revenues and really is the essential element to New York City’s standing, particularly the taxes that they pay. And it was surprising to me that they have really picked up on that kind of resentment because it’s part of an overall problem I think we’re having these days where we look at people, we

2:27 find out what they do, and we have an immediate judgment against them without really any portfolio or not spending any time trying to understand.

2:35 Speaker 1 Them understood because I have been around some of those Orbany people and they said to me, oh, you guys are gonna pay anyway. That was the exact comment that the person gave me.

2:49 Speaker 2 Yeah. See, that’s pretty indicative, and it’s not separate from how I think a lot of people believe in Albany, and I’ve got some news for them. New York State’s income taxes, according to Tom DINAPOLOI, he doesn’t make a big deal out of it, but he puts the statistics out every month, the tax receipts are less and less

3:12 of the percentage that New York State was expecting to get. It’s going to put the governor in a terrible position because they could have an out your budget gap, and that would mean she might have to call the legislature back to either raise taxes or cut programs to so that when they try to pass the budget next year,

3:33 they’re not ten to twelve billion dollars in aarrear. So, you know, if they thought about.

3:39 Speaker 1 The way things are right now, if they try to raise taxes, people will just leave faster.

3:49 Speaker 2 That’s exactly what’s going to happen. And they have no control over whether they leave or not. And they seem to almost treat certain members of the population as if they’re expendable and they’re not expendable. We need them to be here. We need affordable and luxury housing built all over the place. I’ll say one thing, They sure haven’t

4:12 stopped constructing during the pandemic and even afterwards. These days there’s a lot of development going on, but it is really what is, as I said before, the backbone of the city. And you’ll really find out how bad it can be if they do move away, or if you have situations like we had in the seventies where the

4:35 proliferation of crime and the unaffordably of housing at that point created a really squalor condition around the city.

4:48 Speaker 1 I agree one hundred percent. And the last time I spoke to Monopoli the last twelve months, I thought, I think, David Governor, you were there the last twelve months the income taxes were down like thirty one percent or was it the first quarter.

5:06 Speaker 2 In the In the the first month that it really became obvious, I think was April where we came in at about what you said, you know, like thirty percent thirty one percent, And it’s been the same with May and June, and the July numbers should be coming in pretty soon. I don’t think that’s going to be any better,

5:25 and nobody It’s almost as if it’s a secret. Nobody seems to want to address it, but it’s there. And I had this problem in two thousand and eight. I came in in March, I passed the budget budget in April.

5:42 I thought everything was fine. Then I looked up in the first of July and my finance people are telling me we are five to ten billion dollars in arrears in out your budget gap. And we did call the legislature back that summer. But then because we didn’t do as as enough as I wanted us to do, we

6:03 had to face a twenty one point three billion dollar budget deficit in two thousand and eight two thousand and nine, and that was crippling. Somehow we got through that, but it’s just like in your family. If you can’t meet the expenses, you’re going to fall behind, and then the only thing you can do is borrow money, and that

6:26 puts you in an a deeper hole.

6:29 Speaker 1 Now, in relation to that, the migrant crisis is getting almost at a give me the right word, at a critical point.

6:41 Speaker 2 I think it’s at a tipping point where there just aren’t you know, look what happened at the hotels where the hotels were filled up. They were trying to get the excess migrants that mostly males who couldn’t get into the hotels, and they chose to sleep on the streets rather than going to another facility. Finally, on Wednesday, Jimani Williams,

7:04 who was the Public Advocate of the City of New York, he had a press conference warning President Biden that he might not get the votes out of New York that he thinks he would get if he doesn’t do something about this migrant crisis. Now, I don’t think that that would really happen, but it was certainly an element of

7:22 frustration that the Public Advocate was fomenting that everybody else feels, and Mayor Adams bravely has taken on the administration and talked to them about the problems of sending all these migrants but not sending any significant resources to help house them.

7:42 They’re actually companies that exist, john that actually placed these types of people all over the world. There was a crisis in Iraq recently where it was so hot people couldn’t live there, and the company went in and relocated them someplace else. I’m not sure it was an adjoining country, but they can’t even do it because there’s no money

8:02 to pay them. And that’s what’s happening here, and it just seems to be something that the administration has just decided they’re not going to focus on right now. While I don’t think they’ll lose the vote in New York, I don’t think it makes them look very friendly to the needs of the states that the president serves well.

8:25 Speaker 1 Governor Patterson, I think me and you should stay on top of this because it comes to is coming to a critical point, and it’s going to get there sooner than later. Also this November, we need some common sense city council people to be voted in, not the people that want to defund the police.

8:46 Speaker 2 Well, the whole discussion of defunding the police is so misplaced and it is so incendiary that I’d really be surprised if anybody right now to get up publicly and say that that’s a good idea, especially after what we’ve faith over the past few years.

9:05 Speaker 1 Then what we should do is take a survey and see if anybody out there is yelling about that, and let’s see how they vote in the city council. I’m with you, thank you, Governor Patterson, and I’ll see you on Tuesday at that at that conventional it is a convention, is a forum, a real estate forum from New York.

9:29 Speaker 2 Thank you, John,