This commentary I wrote, Marlin: Paterson should leave in 2010, appears in the March 2, 2009 edition of the Long Island Business News.

I am the first to call on Paterson to announce he should not run for a full term and serve the remainder of his time in office unencumbered by election year pressure, fully focused on making decisions that serve the state’s long-term fiscal survival.

This article I wrote appeared in the New York Post on December 2, 2008.

After years of Ground Zero blunders, PA Executive Director Chris Ward’s admission that the Agency’s projected rebuilding schedules and cost estimates are delusional should come as no surprise to New Yorkers.

Pointing one finger of blame at former Governor George Pataki is wholly justified. Pataki—who governed by press release—did not possess the vision, skills or energy to be the redevelopment overseer. His disengaged, ceremonial approach to management just couldn’t fly and the results proved it.

Another finger, however, must be pointed at the Port Authority. In the post-9/11 period, to regain control of the 16-acre Ground Zero from Larry Silverstein, PA officials sowed bureaucratic chaos. For 16 months they stonewalled NYPD requests to review security data. And it took more than 6 years for the PA to build the east bathtub slurry wall, the necessary first step in constructing the foundation for Towers 2, 3, and 4 and the PATH Station. Former PA Executive Director Tony Shorris’s duplicity in hiding the true status of the mess deserves his share of the blame.

Pataki, desperate to star at groundbreaking ceremonies, rewarded, in May 2006, PA shortsightedness and obstructionism by agreeing to turn the management of the Freedom Tower over to the Agency.

The Ward Report to Governor Paterson proves the PA once again conned New Yorkers. Their boast two years ago that only they could restore sanity to the redevelopment of lower Manhattan, was a sham. Add Ground Zero to this list of PA screw-ups:

• World Trade Center construction, whose original 1966 estimated cost was $355 million, came in at over $900 million. To make this commercial real estate “white elephant” economically viable, New York State bailed out the PA by becoming the primary tenant.
• The Newark Airport monorail opened two years behind schedule in 1996 with cost overruns hitting 9 figures. The $350 million, 2-mile system that connects airport terminals and parking lots was the most expensive per mile rail project in recent history.
• The light rail system connecting JFK to LIRR’s Jamaica Station, originally estimated at $1 billion, came in late and had huge cost overruns.
• The PA’s JFK 2000 Project, which commenced in the early 1990s, spent $130 million on improvement studies that were never implemented. They wasted tens of millions on the JFK “tunnel to nowhere.”
• The Automated Guideway Transit project, a high-tech proposal linking LaGuardia and Kennedy to Manhattan, was abandoned in 1994 when projected construction costs jumped from $2 billion to $4 billion. Thirty-one million dollars was wasted in planning.

The Agency also squandered tens of millions of commuters’ hard-earned dollars on these unsuccessful projects: Brooklyn fishport, Yonkers, Bathgate and Elizabeth industrial parks and the Newark legal and communication office building.

And then there’s the money losing facilities: PATH Subway, PA Bus Terminals, Marine terminals, Journal Square Transportation Center—all subsidized by excessive tolls at bridges and tunnels and excessive fees at the region’s airports.

The PA’s historic record of bureaucratic arrogance, waste, mishaps and ineptitude demolishes their claim that only they have the professional planning expertise to pull off huge projects.

Thanks to the PA, the pit in lower Manhattan is a national embarrassment. And anyone who suggests they should be given greater oversight responsibility, over say the Moynihan Station, should get their head examined.

This article I wrote appears in Newsday today, April 15, 2008.

Let’s review America’s financial and economic mayhem:

1. Financial institutions have written off $150 billion in losses and some analysts claim there could be up to $350 billion more.
2. Year-to-Date market returns have been dismal.  The Dow is down 7.79 percent, S&P -9.38 percent, Nasdaq -14.19 percent.
3. The Index of Leading Economic Indicators which was -0.2% in December and has declined in 4 of the last 6 readings indicates the U.S. is in a recession.
4. The Empire State Manufacturing Index fell to 9.03 in January, from 9.80 in December. New orders tumbled 13 points to 0.04, after a 10 point decline in December. Business expectations measured by the future conditions index, were very negative, falling 15 points to 19.44.
5. The CEO Business Confidence Survey fell to 39%, its lowest point since 2000.
6. The Unemployment Rate has risen to 5%.
7. Unadjusted Initial Jobless Claims increased to 547,637, the highest since 2002.
8. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed consumer prices rose at an annual rate of 4.1% in December.
9. The Producer Price Index (PPI) in December showed producer prices were 6.3% higher than the previous year.
10. December Retail Sales (ex autos) fell 0.4%.
11. Real Disposable Personal Income decreased in November and December -0.3% and -0.2% respectively.
12. The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index posted its 10th consecutive month of negative returns. The leading measure of home prices indicates the worst broad-based declines in home values since 1991.
13. The National Association of Realtors reported 2007 home sales declined by 13%, and a 10-month supply of homes are currently on the market.
14. Foreclosure rates (1.69% of mortgages) are at record levels according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. 5.6% of borrowers are 20 days past due, 1.26% are 90 days past due and 1.3% of Prime borrowers are past due.

In the wake of all this economic doom and gloom, what does Governor Spitzer do? He calls for a 5.1 percent spending increase (double the inflation index), $1.7 billion in new fees and taxes, risky one-shot revenues, record spending on education, covering 400 thousand additional children with health insurance, increasing the state work force and giving salary raises to state legislatures.

Spitzer truly lives in his own wonderland. After his presentation he even denied his budget calls for tax increases. He is a spoiled rich kid who believes he can will things.

If Governor Spitzer does not wake up to the fiscal realities and cut spending and taxes, he will be responsible for a severely damaged, if not crippled, state economy. Remember, in the recession of 1990-1991 over 20 percent of the jobs lost nationally were lost in New York. And if history repeats itself, expect people to vote with feet and scores of New York towns, villages and hamlets to turn into municipal deserts.