Former governors discuss the state of the State.

0:00 Speaker 1 Governor Patterson, we are now getting a little bit older.

0:04 Speaker 2 Let me ask you this.

0:05 Speaker 1 When you look at what’s going on nationwide, these are crazy times and it looks like we’re headed for a Biden Trump rematch. When you look at the national scene, what do you make of all of this?

0:21 Speaker 3 I want to go back to your chicken in the egg dilemma. I think that the social discord in this country has arisen from the political discord.

0:35 Speaker 1 I think you’re onto something there, God, So let’s stay with that for a second. It almost seems like the performance level across the board has dropped. Yes, the sense of duty, the sense of responsibility, but almost the degree of professionalism has dropped. It’s not taking is seriously. There’s not as much discipline about it. And I think part

1:06 of it is there is less scrutiny by the press. I think the press has diminished almost across the board.

1:18 Speaker 2 It’s more partisan.

1:20 Speaker 1 Yes, we always had the New York Post, which was clearly partisan, but.

1:24 Speaker 2 Now it’s right across the board.

1:26 Speaker 1 It’s Fox TV, it’s electronic, it’s the print, and the reporters don’t have the time or the information to go as deep. You know, everything’s about Twitter and everything is is fast. So I don’t think the press is holding government as accountable on the substance which is allowing government to decline.

1:54 Speaker 2 Does that make any sense.

1:55 Speaker 3 To you to amplify what you said, Governor. In today’s New York Post, there’s an article written by somebody named Quinn who had the audacity to write about the bail reform package that was passed in twenty nineteen. And here it is twenty twenty three, and they are now talking about the crime increase since bail reform passed. Well, bail

2:17 reform passed in December of twenty nineteen, two and a half months before the pandemic, which caused crime to spiral all over the country, all over the country, and all of this is an issue about bail reform. And by the way, bail reform has some degree of an effect on the rate of crime. But the real problem with

2:44 crime right now is far more complicated. It’s a bunch of young people who are out doing nothing for year and a half during the pandemic.

2:54 Speaker 4 It’s people who’ve moved out.

2:56 Speaker 3 Of New York State, for instance. And the tax rolls are getting smaller and smaller. They set at one point seven thousand people were paying half the taxes in New York State.

3:07 Speaker 4 It’s probably much.

3:08 Speaker 3 Less than that now, and I think that the media itself has just goes for the quick headline. Yes, theoretically the crime rate is up since twenty nineteen, but a whole lot of things happened in twenty nineteen that we could blame it on.

3:28 Speaker 4 But the real.

3:30 Speaker 3 Blame lies in what was an unpredicted event, and that was the pandemic.

3:38 Speaker 1 People are asking today what happened this year?

3:42 Speaker 2 How did the budget get late?

3:45 Speaker 1 And how did the governor get denied basically her essential priorities.

3:52 Speaker 2 How do you think it happened?

3:53 Speaker 3 I think that the problem governor in this situation is that Governor Hokeel has for some reason not exercised those powers. And you know, I don’t think that it’s that she doesn’t want to. I just don’t think that she recognizes that she could change the dynamic that exists right now between her and the legislature where they actually in public say, oh,

4:26 we get along great, and everyone knows that’s not true.

4:30 Speaker 4 So why bother with that? Why not just go right to the heart of the matter and start.

4:36 Speaker 3 Using those executive powers that have been sustained by by courts in their rulings, and use it to your advantage, because even under the constitution, the state is first depending on you to lead.

4:55 Speaker 4 The legislators work with you.

4:58 Speaker 3 But the governor is the one that should be leading this. And it might be just my misunderstanding or yours, but it just doesn’t appear that that’s happening.

5:09 Speaker 2 We’ve always had a far left wing right. That’s nothing new.

5:14 Speaker 1 There’s always been a far left wing, different names, different acronyms over the years, the far reformers, and sometimes they’ve been constructive, sometimes they have been destructive. Today you have been so called progressives. First of all, I don’t even know what that means, because progressive is not a new word, right.

5:35 It goes back to Teddy rooseveilt fbr Excuse me, your father called themselves a progressive. My father called himself a progressive, But they call themselves progressives. I don’t know what they stand for. I don’t know what they’re trying to accomplish.

5:51 Speaker 2 Do you think they are a constructive force?

5:55 Speaker 1 Do you think they’re accomplishing anything productive.

5:59 Speaker 2 For the party.

6:00 Speaker 3 The problem with the progressive movement today is it only focuses on a kind of utopian idea that will share all money among amongst all the people.

6:13 Speaker 4 Everyone will get the same thing.

6:16 Speaker 3 UH will will give money to causes even when the state doesn’t have it, and we will change the world. It’s almost like you’re you’re watching some movie like The Wizard of Oz or something like that.

6:32 Speaker 4 And I don’t feel the substance.

6:36 Speaker 3 I don’t feel the the research that goes into the positions that many of them take.

6:43 Speaker 4 And I don’t.

6:43 Speaker 3 Feel the the the character being demonstrated that the people who were.

6:51 Speaker 4 Fighting as we did when we were.

6:53 Speaker 3 Younger for causes that we believed in and causes that even our adversaries realize.

7:01 Speaker 1 Albany, I think they are afraid of the far left. I think they are afraid of the defund the police. The moderates in Albany are intimidated by the far left.

7:14 Speaker 2 Let’s be honest.

7:15 Speaker 1 Back in our day, the moderates were the majority, but they also had vocal courts. The moderates are still the majority, but they’ve been intimidated because the far left.

7:30 Speaker 2 They are tiny, but they are mighty. You know, they’re activists.

7:34 Speaker 1 But the moderates are intimidated defund the police, which is one of the most insane, dumb statements ever made. And so I don’t think Albany is being responsive to what Mayor Adams is asking.

7:49 Speaker 2 And if Mayor Adams doesn’t actually get.

7:53 Speaker 1 Delivery, he’s not going to make a difference. And as David Dinkins learned, New Yorkers are an intolerant group, and they loved David Dinkins, but they elected Rudy Giuliani. And I was in that campaign with a man named Billy and God Rest his soul, trying to get David Dinkins reelected, and people said the same thing over and over.

8:22 Speaker 2 Oh, I like David Dinkins. He’s a gentleman. I really like him.

8:29 Speaker 1 I’m voting for Rudy Giuliani because I’m afraid about crime, and I’m afraid about the streets, and I’m afraid about dirt, and I’m afraid about homelessness, and I’m afraid about squeegee men at the time, which sort of that was the symbol at that time. So you don’t deliver, they can like you, but you’re gone. They’ll still like you, but

8:52 they’tt’ll like you from a distance.

8:54 Speaker 4 So, Governor, I have a question for you.

8:57 Speaker 3 I don’t understand why Democrats in Albany. Now they have both majorities, they could pass some legislation about crime.

9:09 Speaker 4 They could play.

9:10 Speaker 3 The role the same way often the Republicans do with the crime fighters here, not them, And at the same time some of these other issues that they’re interested in that they want to pass, that could be the compromise they take it. I mean, giving the governor bail reform was really, in my opinion, symbolic and ceremonial. As we

9:33 both said in this conversation, it’s not going to change the crime rate, not a millimeter. However, if they were, if they’d done that, stood with the governor there and then turned around and said the governor, listen, you didn’t give enough in minimum wage. You only raised it two dollars.

9:52 We needed more, and the governor has to settle with them. Wouldn’t they be in a much better position than they are today.

9:59 Speaker 1 Oh, Gov, I don’t think anyone won anything, that’s what. Yeah, I don’t think anyone won anything. The governor loses first, I’m with you. The answer was not bail reform. The governor’s answer was I want to fight crime, and I need a comprehensive package to do that. Yes, it’s going to be more after school programs, it’s going to be

10:23 more employment programs, but we also need more and different policing. The irony is this, and I.

10:32 Speaker 2 Think the legislature gets this.

10:35 Speaker 1 At the end of the day, when government works, it works for everyone.

10:41 Speaker 2 When you got the budget done on time, it wasn’t just you.

10:44 Speaker 1 They all looked good those accomplishments in your to the benefit of everyone. It’s not the governor or the legislature, it’s both.

10:56 Speaker 2 And when they fail, it’s both.

11:00 Speaker 1 They’re now all going home and they’re going to have to stand up and everyone’s going to say the same thing, why were you late?

11:08 Speaker 2 What happened? And all these half a loaf, half a loaf, half a loaf, they’re.

11:14 Speaker 1 All going to get argued arguments from the other half.

11:19 Speaker 2 Of the loaf.

11:20 Speaker 1 I got half a bail reform, I got half a charter school, I got half of So it doesn’t.

11:26 Speaker 2 Work for anyone.

11:27 Speaker 1 It either at the end of the day, it either works for everyone or it doesn’t work for anyone. Governor Patterson, it was so much fun to be with you, and your recollections and your insights are so profound. I want to thank you. I also enjoy listening to you on WABC Radio. God bless John Katamatitis, who owns WABC.

11:51 Speaker 2 I want you to know that I feel for you because it’s always like you.

11:56 Speaker 1 Versus fifty seven conservatives on exec exactly.

12:01 Speaker 3 Well, Governor, it was a pleasure to do this with you, and I told you we made history with the first governors to interview each other.

12:08 Speaker 4 But here’s to you, Governor, Thank you very much.

12:12 Speaker 2 My regards to Mary