The New York Observer » Richard Ravitch http://www.observer.com Just another WordPress site Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:37:48 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Governor Cuomo’s Congestion Pricing U-Turn Transit wonks are hoping Governor Andrew Cuomo might still be their secret savior, and it's starting to look like he might be. Not only has the governor selected a crack team to replace outgoing M.T.A. chief Jay Walder, but he is even said to be considering the impossible—congestion pricing. Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/08/governor-cuomo-congestion-pricing/ Ravitch: Toll the Bridges Already The M.T.A. decided to take on nearly $7 billion in debt today in order to balance its capital budget, which is short $9 billion for the next three years. Former Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch has a novel idea to solve the problem: bring back congestion pricing. Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/07/ravitch-toll-the-bridges-already/ Will Conductor Cuomo Put the M.T.A. On Track? Transportation wonks have a habit of talking about Jay Walder, the outgoing head of the M.T.A., in messianic terms, as though he were the only man capable of fixing the agency’s myriad problems—an aging system, run by intransigent unions, with almost no political support. While many of them have greeted his resignation with shock and concern, there is a growing sense that this could actually be the best thing to happen to the M.T.A. since Mr. Walder’s arrival two years ago.

“I guess I’m partly responsible for inflating the importance of Jay,” said Gene Russianoff, head of the Straphangers Campaign and dean of transit advocate.

Indeed, there have been others—Richard Ravitch, the team of Kiley-Gunn, even Mr. Walder’s predecessor, Lee Sander—who have done a lot to resurrect mass transit from the death throes of the 1970s. Mr. Walder, though, was different. He had moved from McKinsey to run London’s transit system, introducing successful innovations, including the vaunted oyster card, which speeds up bus and Tube boardings, as well as implementing that dread scourge, congestion pricing. He was supposed to bring the same innovation and ingenuity to New York.

“You have to hope it’s a wake-up call to the people in Albany,” blogger and M.T.A. kremlinologist Benjamin Kabak said. Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/07/will-conductor-cuomo-put-the-m-t-a-on-track/ Morning Read: Cuomo Pays Taxes, Bloomberg Fumes Over Sign Scofflaw

Congress: Proof the world is drifting right: NJ Rep. Scott Garrett is mainstream. [Raymond Hernandez]

2012: "Maybe I'm going to do the tax returns when Obama does his birth certificate...I'd love to give my tax returns.  I may tie my tax returns into Obama's birth certificate." [George Stephanopoulos]

2012: Trump is odd, Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/politics/morning-read-cuomo-pays-taxes-bloomberg-fumes-over-sign-scofflaw Why Is Budget Reform So Hard? Ravitch: It’s Boring, For One For months now, Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch has been shuttling around the state to business and labor leaders and elected officials in an effort to impress upon them the severity of the fiscal situation. Past borrowing and one-shot asset sales have pushed the state to the edge of a cliff, Ravitch likes to say, one Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2010/politics/why-budget-reform-so-hard-ravitch-its-boring-one Paterson: Just Read the Damn Ravitch Report and Stop Asking About Borrowing Governor Paterson is unhappy with the way the details of Lt. Governor Richard Ravitch's five year fiscal plan have leaked out. That is to say he's sick of questions about borrowing. (The report's now scheduled to be unveiled to the public at noon today). 

He was asked about the report, which is set to to call Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2010/politics/paterson-just-read-damn-ravitch-report-and-stop-asking-about-borrowing The Last (Good) Man Standing On the morning of Monday, March 8, Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch placed a call to Kathryn Wylde, president of the civic-minded business group Partnership for New York City, with a request.

Mr. Ravitch, who was working on a plan to reform the state’s dismal system of budgeting, needed support—and fast. He wanted Ms. Wylde, a power Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2010/politics/last-good-man-standing Common Cause Reluctantly Calls for Resignation The good-government group Common Cause is now calling for Governor David Paterson to resign.

"Given the fiscal and governmental crisis enveloping our state, we at Common Cause/New York have come to the reluctant conclusion that it would be in the best interest of the people of the State of New York for Governor Paterson to step Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2010/politics/common-cause-reluctantly-calls-resignation Behind Paterson, The Crooked Line of Succession When Eliot Spitzer took the oath of office on the first day of January 2007, he promised a new day in New York politics. "This election was not about electing one person as governor," Mr. Spitzer said. 

How right he was!

When Client Number Nine resigned in March of 2008, he ceded the state to Governor Number Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2010/daily-transom/after-paterson-crooked-line-succession City Comptroller John Liu: Paterson Should Resign City Comptroller John Liu is calling for Governor Paterson to resign, one of the first such calls by an elected official.

From a statement sent out by Liu's office just minutes after Paterson finished up the press conference at which he announced he would no longer seek reelection:

"We have a $4.1 billion budget deficit Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2010/politics/liu-paterson-should-resign Ravitch Time The worse things get for Governor David Paterson, the more fun it'll be to hang out with his lieutenant governor, Richard Ravitch, who is raising money for Assemblyman Jonathan Bing of Manhattan on Thursday.

]]> http://www.observer.com/2010/politics/ravith-time A State of Dysfunction Late Tuesday morning, Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch stepped to the podium in the theater at Albany's Empire State Plaza before an audience filled with legislators awaiting presentation of the governor's expectedly grim proposed budget.

Introducing Governor Paterson, Mr. Ravitch took a minute to make a plea-as much as the terse, stoic, raspy-voiced deputy can-for Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2010/politics/state-dysfunction A State of Dysfunction Late Tuesday morning, Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch stepped to the podium in the theater at Albany's Empire State Plaza before an audience filled with legislators awaiting presentation of the governor's expectedly grim proposed budget.

Introducing Governor Paterson, Mr. Ravitch took a minute to make a plea-as much as the terse, stoic, raspy-voiced deputy Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2010/politics/state-dysfunction-0 Schneiderman Raises, With DiNapoli ALBANY—State Senator Eric Schneiderman will kick off the start of the legislative session with a fund-raiser at the house of Meredith Kane, his law school classmate.

The event will take place on January 7, the day after David Paterson delivers his State of the State address. Democratic Senate Leader John Sampson is also launching Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2009/politics/schneiderman-raises-dinapoli Paterson Says Legislators Could Have Better Spread Cutting Pain ALBANY—Don't like those school cuts? Blame your legislator.

"The legislature, had they passed the wealth-based plan that I initiated, we wouldn't be here. The fact is they didn't do anything. The only thing they did was take $391 million of stimulus money from next year and used it to fill the gap in 2009," Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2009/politics/paterson-says-legislators-could-have-better-spread-cutting-pain