The state budget has still not passed.

0:00 Speaker 1 What is this Sunday morning? Is Governor David Patterson, and he’s with us every Sunday to tell us what the heck is going on in our city, state, or country, the world. Governor Patterson, good morning.

0:14 Speaker 2 Good morning John, And this particular Sunday. You know, over the past few days, it’s been since the passing of OJ Simpson, who died of prostact cancer at seventy six. But that whole era where he was tried and acquitted is probably going to be famous in American history. I wrote an article after it was dying down, and I

0:42 don’t remember whether they printed in the post of the Daily News, but the title my article was they framed a guilty man. In other words, I always thought that Oj Simpsons this is about as guilty as anyone could possibly be. But the fooling around with the ether by the police, and then the inability to freeze some of

1:04 the DNA samples by law enforcement during that time opened the door for the jury, whose emotional state was probably already to acquit because they were only they were only in the jury room for about an hour and a half before they came out with a verdict. But what I’ve always thought about this particular case is that it

1:30 actually was the reflection of emotion from another case, and that was in nineteen ninety two, the Rodney King case, where the officers were acquitted even though you could see them beating a man who’s defenseless. And I think that the anger from that era carried over to the jury at that trial and many people who cheered for the

1:52 result of the jury decision, which I think belies the truth. And so this is a new word I want to introduce into the English language judicial karma. We see this over and over again where there’s a terrible decision by a quarter a jury, but it sets the stage for a very positive decision. So we had the situation or

2:18 with George Zimmerman and Florida, who shoots Trayvon Martin. He doesn’t get convicted of anything. However, it sets the stage for the George Floyd case where everybody was on the same page. The jury ran the table and in that case, the police officer got a strong sentence as he should add. So, you know, even putting aside the emotion that people feel

2:45 one way or the other about this case, I think one of the great things about is that how it shows that the American system is not always right each time, but it certainly curves in the right direction. Or, as Martin Luther King once said, that the arc of justice is slow. The arc of justice is slow, but it

3:05 bends in the right direction.

3:08 Speaker 1 So, in other words, in your opinion that OJ was guilty and eventually he got his put.

3:20 Speaker 2 I mean, I don’t see how he could be much more guilty than him. His blood was on the car, his blood was on the steering wheel, his blood was on the victims. He writes a letter to his lawyer which looks like a suicide note before that famous ten mile an hour car chase up the road back in

3:40 a few days after the situation. But I think that the tone of where the public was at that particular time in you were to his benefit. But I think if you told people life or death, do they think he was guilty of the actual crime, they would have to say that he was.

4:00 Speaker 1 Stood. Well, what else is new this Sunday morning?

4:05 Speaker 2 Well, what’s not new, John, is that the budget isn’t passed. I said to you, I guess a couple of weeks ago, I wouldn’t worry much about it as long as it happens in the first couple of weeks of April, no one will even remember it. But now we’re getting toward the second part of April and it’s still not passed.

4:23 And this is when, unfortunately, what conferences do, and I was in a conference where this happens, they dig in. Instead of saying, all right, what can we trade with each other to make this thing work? They become more glorified in the in trying to win all the arguments, and they’re not negotiating anymore. And this is when you

4:45 can have budgets that run as late as August eleventh, which was how long it took to pass the budget in two thousand and two when I was a legislator. So my admonition to the legislator is to you know, don’t shut out the governor, don’t refuse to talk or any that kind of thing. Don’t delay a situation that

5:10 makes New York State look bad. We’re the only state whose budget deadline is April first, so if we’re first in closing budgets, we should stay that way and have it passed before other deadlines come and go for other states and they come in on time.

5:27 Speaker 1 Understood, Now, well, who knows what’s going to happen. I we both advise Governor Hockel, the hang tuff and the people of the City of New York, the State of New York will hang in there with her. And I think this is the making of her career. Either she’s gonna be viewed as a very, very successful governor or not.

5:51 I mean, this is the time, isn’t it.

5:54 Speaker 2 The Governor, I think that the housing issue is at the center of the disagreement, and I think there certainly has to be affordable housing. But to have affordable housing, we have to put a lot of money into it, which means we have to take money away from other sources.

6:15 But it might be the right thing to do right now, because for a they should just tear it up and redo it and give the developers a chance to put the housing in place that all New Yorkers, I think would.

6:28 Speaker 1 Appreciate, understood. Anything else you want to tell our listeners.

6:35 Speaker 2 Well, I think it’s just an interesting time right now in our history, not only as a state but as a country. And I’m just hoping as the year goes on that the debates, the national election and everybody who becomes a part of it as Americans who registered to vote, that we do it with some thought about not only

7:02 how it benefits us, but how it benefits our neighbors. That’s what made our country great from its inception. That’s what made it greater when we corrected some issues that weren’t addressed at the time of the Revolutionary War. And that’s what can make it great today and tomorrow.

7:19 Speaker 1 Thank you, Governor Patterson, and we’ll catch up with you again real soon. And God bless them Erica.

7:26 Speaker 2 And God bless you John. Take care of you.