Apparently, David Paterson has thrown up his hands and walked away from the MTA bailout plan.
David Paterson said the M.T.A. board should go ahead with raising fares at its Wednesday board meeting, implicitly admitting that state government will not enact a revenue package to mitigate fare hikes beforehand.
"I don't think that the agency should delay any action," Paterson just said at a Red Room press conference.
Yesterday, he said he was "not really optimistic" that he and lawmakers would reach an agreement on time. When asked if he was meeting about an M.T.A. bailout in the next 48 hours, Paterson repeated that he's been "trying to reach an agreement for the past several weeks."
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A reporter asked Paterson if he felt he had failed.
"No, I think it's an aspect of government that we all have to recognize: these two gentlemen run conferences in the legislature that need consensus and the three houses have to agree," he said. "Ascribing any kind of blame to one sector of the triad is often a way that people try to explain it, but you've got to have consensus. That's the way our democracy works."
I'm sorry, but that's just pathetic. Look, I know that getting a deal that both works to actually solve the problem and is acceptable to enough lawmakers in both chambers is a very difficult thing to do. It most certainly is. But, people expect their leaders to, ya know, lead. Leaders need to make the case for the way forward and work hard to bring it about, not just walk away when the going gets tough.
Is this a case of the Governor not having sufficient juice anymore as his poll numbers take a dive off a cliff, or is this simply an ineffective executive tossing his constituent's interests aside because the job is too demanding?
Regardless, there's plenty of blame to go around here, but only one of the three men in a room carries the title "Governor." Only one of them represents all New Yorkers. Walking away is simply unacceptable.
And he seriously thinks he's running for anything next year?
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