Serious budget problems plague the state.

0:00 Speaker 1 What is today’s former governor David Patterson, And so many things are happening in New York. Governor, I mean, where do you want to start?

0:11 Speaker 2 Well, John, last week I had fallen on my own sport and decided to support some legislation that I had criticized earlier in the month. And today I think I’m going to do it again because I’ve been noticing or stealing something over the past couple of weeks, and I finally checked it out, and it turns out that traffic

0:36 levels in New York City are now exactly about the same as they were in January, February, and March of twenty twenty, which is right as the pandemic starts. So for April, May and June, those traffic levels are the same. Now.

0:51 That changes the conversation a little bit from what I framed last week, because I felt that you wouldn’t be able to generate the revenues in the city to pay for congestion pricing. But Governor Hochele can go forward now because she knows that these people are in the city just she just has to find a way to get

1:13 them to spend money. Now, one of the other issues that you know, this kind of confronts is just the whole discussion of how it affects cars coming into the city and the other places they drive. I don’t think the New Jersey lawsuit has any standing because it really doesn’t, you know, it’s it’s something that New York State is

1:36 doing in New York State. Vito Basel, though the thattn Island Borough president. His case is a little different because Saton Island is a part of New York City. I don’t think he’ll win, but I think that he has a much better chest.

1:53 Speaker 1 Well, I really do think you’ll you know, it’ll hurt New York City, Manhattan, one of the five boroughs, because already the traffic exists on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, but Mondays and Fridays, it’s a little a lot less than anything.

2:15 Speaker 2 I don’t know, John, I was out there this past Monday and it was horrific. I don’t know what actually caused that, because usually you’re, right during the early part of the summer, a lot of people taking Monday off and and taking Friday off and basically working those middle three days. But I think that that’s picking up now

2:38 and that would at least give the proponents the opportunity maybe to hit their goal. I think that the issue will just be whether or not that level of traffic will remain when it goes into effect.

2:57 Speaker 1 Well, time will tell. But you know, it’s like I said on the on the show the other day, Manhattan looks like it has one nail in the coffin and a second nail is not going to help. But you’re you’re entitled to your opinion.

3:17 Speaker 2 Well, I you know, I had thought that the traffic levels was significantly lower, but it appears now that it’s return to where it was. The question now is well the revenue generation returned to where it is and how far is it? Because I thought that’s why it wouldn’t work.

3:34 But I got to say, Governor Huckel has demonstrated in the last few months some real leadership. Now let’s just remember she’s the only governor that ever came into office and had to run in her first year. I didn’t have to do it, neither did any of your other predecessors.

3:52 But now I think she’s really taking the reins and trying to put her imprint on this because one of the things she knows, and we talked about it on the show, as there’s been a significant drop in tax re seat collections that control of Tom Dnapley has actually written about in a couple of newspapers, and so she’s

4:13 got to find a way to come up with those revenues one way or the other. And in this situation it might give her a shot. She can’t call the legislature back. I don’t think she can to, you know, cut programs or tax the rich. I don’t think that’s an option that she would take at this point. She

4:34 could in the future, but for now, this is a revenue generating source that she can use effectively and you know, perhaps fort the out your budget gap that we might have otherwise.

4:50 Speaker 1 Like I said, Governor, you’re entitled to your opinion.

4:56 Speaker 2 Well, John, I’m glad I’m on this show because not you have an opinion.

5:01 Speaker 1 Yeah, you can have your opinion. I mean, I don’t necessarily agree with you, but it is what it is. Anything else you want to talk. Do you think crime is getting any better?

5:15 Speaker 2 Uh? I think some of the crime statistics. Gun crimes are down. But as I’ve said, what you have to fight when you’re fighting crime is the fear of it that people have. You know, maybe the fear is less than what it really is. But there have been some, you know, pretty horrible situations that we’ve had to deal

5:43 with the city. People being shoved in front of subways and that kind of thing. And it’s really not the fault of any of the leaders of the city, but as a leader, sometimes the best way to lead people walk behind them or people are feeling that, you just kind of to go with it and until you can

6:03 reach the statistics as they were able to do in the late nineties and then again under Mayor Bloomberg, and hopefully that’ll happen again.

6:13 Speaker 1 Understood well, Governor David Patterson, thank you so much for coming on this Sunday morning, and we’ll catch up with you again real soon.

6:21 Speaker 2 Thanks a lot, John