NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- Governor David Paterson joined us today for a live interview at 4pm.
We asked our listeners for some help in asking the questions that matter to you the most.
You can view all the questions right here. Feel free to add to the list...
LISTEN: Full interview with Gov. Paterson 
We started off the 20 minute interview with questions about what kinds of changes New Yorkers may see with a budget so far into the red.
"We're going to be very careful when it comes to emergency services. But, I've got to tell you. When we've got this amount of deficit, eventually we are going to feel some pain." Paterson goes on to say, "I think that it is a crisis when it starts happening to you. When it's happening to others, you can call it other things. But there are a lot of New Yorkers that are going to suffer during this time,"
And what his reaction is to Speaker Sheldon Silver saying Governor Paterson is overreacting to the fiscal situation.
"If there's no further drop in the deficit, then theoretically I can close the budget gap myself by cutting $630 million dollars. Which I will do, seven percent to agencies... there's going to be some pain there, but I'll do it. But, my point is, suppose the Speaker is right. Suppose the deficit doesn't get worse. The $600 million dollars that I can cut could come off the $6.4 billion we have to cut next year anyway. Even if he is right why wouldn't we want to cut our debt now as opposed to later?"
The Governor answered our daily proposed 411 question: Gas tax? Congestion pricing? Latest on state energy solutions.
"The problem is we haven't see any decrease in the amount of gas per gallon that we fill up at the tank and that's why I oppose the gas-tax reduction. We have no guarantee from the oil company heads that they would pass their savings along to the consumers. Here's an example of how I'm right... if the oil prices have gone down by $26 per barrel just in the last week and a half, and you don't see any of that passed along to the gas, what makes you think that if we reduce the gas tax that the oil companies are suddenly going to become benevolent in the middle of August and pass that along to consumers."
The issue of congestion pricing came up. Would Governor Paterson be behind another stab at congestion pricing for New York City?
"I thought Mayor Bloomberg was right... He had a plan, it did need some work and he himself recognized that. I wouldn't mind seeing congestion pricing come back. We're going to have a million more people in the city and there is a real need to upgrade our rail systems, in a sense, re-invent transportation."
E-Mail Story
Print Story
