Paterson

Today at a Crain’s breakfast, Deputy Mayor Robert Lieber expressed interest in the Port Authority taking over Moynihan – “they have money,” he said. This comes one month after Mayor Bloomberg deemed it a “horrible idea.” Crain’s has a recap and video.

The Amtrak bill that would solicit private sector proposals to build a high speed rail link between DC and NY passed the House on Tuesday. Gannett News reports that the 227-187 margin fell short of the majority required to override a Bush veto.

In addition to providing Amtrak operating subsidies over five years, the measure seeks to boost investment in high-speed rail.

It also calls for opening up the Washington-to-Boston route and 10 others across the country to private competitors — something Democrats such as Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey strongly oppose.

Though President Bush likes the bill’s privatization proposal, he rejects boosting funding for passenger rail if Amtrak isn’t held more accountable and doesn’t change the way it does business, the White House said in a statement explaining the veto threat.

Lautenberg, meanwhile, co-wrote an $11.4 billion Amtrak bill that passed the Senate 70-22 in October.

House and Senate negotiators have to come up with a compromise bill, which would then have to pass Congress and win Bush's signature to become law.

In other news, Governor Paterson announced his appointments to a commission on MTA financing. Richard Ravitch, former head of the MTA, will chair the commission. Appointees include MTA CEO Lee Sander, developer Douglas Durst, Con Ed chair Kevin Burke, and former Port Authority director Peter Goldmark. Excerpts from a press statement:

Governor David A. Paterson today appointed 12 members to the Commission on Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Financing, to be chaired by former MTA Chairman Richard Ravitch. The Commission is charged with recommending strategies to fund MTA capital projects and operating needs over the next ten years, a period when the Authority will be under unprecedented financial pressure as it expands its system and rebuilds its core infrastructure to provide the additional capacity needed to allow the region to grow. Governor Paterson announced in April that Richard Ravitch would head the Commission in wake of the failure of the congestion pricing proposal, which would have provided an additional revenue stream to the MTA….More here.

The New York Observer reports that Governor Paterson has nominated Stanley Grayson, the former deputy mayor under Koch, to take the place of Bruce Blakeman, a Pataki administration appointee, on the Port Authority’s governing board. The governors of New York and New Jersey each appoint six members to the board for overlapping six year terms. Last month, Paterson appointee Chris Ward assumed the head role at the agency, which may take over the Moynihan Station project.

Statement from the governor's office, courtesy of the Observer:

Stanley E. Grayson has been nominated as a Commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Mr. Grayson is currently the President and Chief Operating Officer of M. R. Beal and Company, an investment banking firm focused on public finance, corporate debt and equity, fixed-income sales and trading, and financial advisory services. Prior to joining M. R. Beal in 2002, Mr. Grayson was a Managing Director and Manager of Prudential Securities Public Finance Department and member of the firm’s Operating Committee where he oversaw the public finance activities of Prudential Securities. Prior to joining Prudential Securities, from 1990 to 1996 Mr. Grayson was a Vice President at Goldman Sachs in the Municipal Bond Department’s Infrastructure and General Banking Group.

Prior to his investment-banking career, Mr. Grayson held several senior positions within New York City Government, including Deputy Mayor for Finance and Economic Development, Finance Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer of the New York City Industrial Development Agency. Mr. Grayson began his legal career in the Law Department of the Metropolitan Life Company.

Mr. Grayson serves on the Board of Directors of New York Catholic Charities, The Faith Center for Community Development, The Alliance for Downtown Business, The New York City School Construction Authority and is a Trustee of The Churchill School and Center. He received his BA from the College of Holy Cross and his JD from the University of Michigan Law School.

As a Commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Mr. Grayson will not receive a salary. This appointment requires Senate confirmation.

Read “Paterson Taps Koch Deputy Mayor for Port Authority Board,” by Eliot Brown for The New York Observer

Today, Peter Kiefer reports that “Senator Schumer's plan to give the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey control of the redevelopment of Pennsylvania Station is being viewed as an end run around the Democratic speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, and the state Legislature.” Excerpts below:

As a bistate agency, the Port Authority is not subject to the Public Authorities Control Board, which gives final approval on financing for public projects in New York State. In recent years, Mr. Silver has controlled the PACB, and has used it to wield influence over a number of development projects — most notably to kill Mayor Bloomberg's plan to bring a new Jets stadium to the Hudson rail yards, and Governor Pataki's plan to convert the Farley Post Office building into Moynihan Station.

In the past, Mr. Silver has used his PACB vote to wrest concessions for his district, Lower Manhattan. Less than two weeks before Mr. Silver cast his vote to derail the Jets stadium project, Messrs. Pataki and Bloomberg announced plans to spend more than $800 million on a slew of projects for Lower Manhattan…

Proponents of the transfer say the Port Authority could use the $2 billion that is available in its capital plan to plug a public funding gap and get the project back on track. At the end of 2007, the Port Authority, which controls the area's ports, airports, and most New York City toll bridges and tunnels, reported gross operating revenues of about $3.2 billion.

Regarding Assemblyman Brodsky’s hearing on Friday:

The chairman of the Assembly's Committee on Corporations Authorities and Commissions, Richard Brodsky, opposes the Port Authority taking the lead role on the project, and is said to be addressing the matter at a hearing on Friday.

Mr. Brodsky said the problem stems from the state of New Jersey's refusal to alter the governing structure of the Port Authority. "There is no statute that can control Port Authority behavior," he said.
A spokesman for Mr. Silver, Daniel Weiler, said: "The speaker's concern is that before jumping on new projects, we need to see existing projects come to conclusion."

Mr. Schumer's office would not respond to a request for comment.

"The Moynihan Station is a vital project and we are pleased by the discussions of confidence in our role as a builder in the region. But any potential role is up to the board and consultations with the governors," a spokesman for the Port Authority, Steve Sigmund, said.

Today, the Port Authority’s board of directors is expected to officially appoint Chris Ward as the agency’s new executive director.

Read “An End Run Around Silver is Seen as Schumer’s Gain,” by Peter Kiefer for The New York Sun

Read “Brodsky, Gottfried None Too Happy About Moynihan’s Move to Port Authority,” by Eliot Brown for The New York Observer

In an editorial today, the Daily News says “there are hopeful signs Gov. Paterson is starting to focus on projects that would remake a huge swath of midtown.”

What's more important right now is that Paterson is trying to revive a development that would be a major boon to New York - provided the project is designed so as to maximize public benefits and minimize public costs.

Thanks to a rezoning that permitted construction of 5.5 million square feet of office space, the developers and Cablevision stood to reap handsome rewards as long as they invested in a new train station.

But no one ever settled how much the builders would pay, how much the public would kick in or even what kind of station they planned to offer. Still, it was clear that their most magnificent design was - and is - unaffordable at almost $3 billion.

So, first things first for Paterson, Bloomberg and all involved. As they seek to entice Cablevision back to the table, they must determine whether it is possible to design a station that provides major transportation improvements at minor public expense.

Aides say that's Paterson's goal. Excellent. Holding to it will mean refusing to simply tap into $2 billion that the Port Authority has set aside for transportation projects in New York. The public needs the biggest bang for the buck. Let's see what it is.

Yesterday, Paterson said he still has not mind up his mind about who should be in charge at Moynihan Station and reiterated his call for a summit of the key players. Newsday reports:

Paterson agreed with the rationale behind Port Authority control of the halted project - a position Mayor Michael Bloomberg bitterly opposes. But, he said, he hasn't decided if that agency is the best choice to lead the Penn Station redevelopment project. The Empire State Development Corp. is currently the overseer.

Paterson said he is open to a funding solution that would lead to actually moving dirt at Moynihan as well as at other financially troubled developments, including the Hudson Yard site.

"We've gotta take all those projects, bring the stake holders in, have a conversation about what is working and what isn't working and show leadership," Paterson said after a news conference at his executive chambers in Manhattan.

Read “Paterson’s Penn Push,” from The Daily News

Read “Considering Who Will Run Moynihan Station Project,” by Michael Frazier for Newsday

Yesterday, Governor Paterson endorsed Senator Schumer’s proposal to give the Port Authority control over Moynihan Station. “I think it’s a good idea,” he said. “The Port Authority is the area's transportation vehicle. The Moynihan Station is a transportation project.” (Watch a video of the press conference here)From the Daily News:

This, of course, pits Paterson against Mayor Bloomberg, who was less than thrilled with Schumer's rejection of a key part of the mayor's plan as "the goofiest thing" he had ever seen. Bloomberg retorted that perhaps Schumer should mind his own business.

The governor insisted the disagreement over Moynihan Station "isn't a personal feud," and praised Bloomberg for voicing concerns now rather than at some point down the road, adding: "He did what public servants should do."
Paterson said he will "weigh" Bloomberg's concerns as he works to reach a final decision on Moynihan, but he also called Schumer's proposal "a good idea."

Paterson also again defended his decision to do away with the two-chair structure Eliot Spitzer created at ESDC - a move that has brought him considerable grief from upstate business leaders and editorial boards.
The governor said he doesn't have anyone "teed up" to run the development corporation; he has appointed a commission to help him find someone.

The Post has an entertaining graphic called “The Fight for Moynihan Station.”

Read “Paterson Agrees With Schumer on Moynihan Station,” by Elizabeth Benjamin for The Daily News

Last night, the Municipal Art Society convened a panel to discuss next steps for Moynihan Station and the priorities for the Far West Side.

Panelists included: Kent Barwick, president, Municipal Art Society; Richard L. Brodsky, assemblyman, New York State Assembly; Anna Hayes Levin, chair, Community Board 4; and Daniel A. Biederman, president, 34th Street Partnership; and Kathryn S. Wilde, president and CEO, Partnership for New York City. The moderator was Charles Bagli, reporter, The New York Times.

Pointing to a projected map of the Far West Side (pictured below and available for download here), Kent Barwick noted a lack of planning and coordination. “We’re dealing with mostly state projects being built by people who apparently don’t run into each other in the halls of Albany,” he said. It is essential that the public sector build the infrastructure to create the conditions for development – and “there is no theory in which Farley (Moynihan Station) is not the first step,” said Barwick. This is the challenge inherited by Governor Patterson and “if New York doesn’t grab this opportunity it will be a shame.”

“I still think moving MSG makes sense,” said Anna Hayes-Levin. She admitted that the Garden is currently out of the picture, but she said establishing some real leadership at the state level could bring the Dolans back to the table. “That’s what was missing before,” she quipped.

Meanwhile, up in Albany, Governor Patterson signaled that he is taking important steps to establish a strong role in Moynihan and other key projects. According to the Daily News, Paterson said that he wants to convene a summit involving the key parties of the projects in need of “real serious conversation” – Moynihan Station, Ground Zero, Hudson Yards, and Javits Center – an idea proposed by the New York Times in March. "I think they can be resurrected," he said. "That's why I would like to bring all those parties together to perhaps decide where are the priorities, No. 1, and secondly, what is achievable, and thirdly, what is not achievable."

Today, the editorial boards of the New York Times and the New York Observer jumped into the tussle between Sen. Schumer and Mayor Bloomberg over who should be in charge at Moynihan. In “Saving Moynihan Station,” the Times declared: “It is time to give the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey the lead role rebuilding this major gateway.”

There are many compelling reasons for giving this job to the Port Authority. It appears to have $2 billion to contribute, a very healthy start. Also, the Port Authority, which builds and maintains major public facilities, has hundreds of engineers, planners and experts. Transportation is their thing — bridges, ports, airports and, yes, train stations.

Today’s Port Authority also has the political leadership — and the transparency — needed to move forward successfully on this complicated project.

The Observer said the vision for Moynihan Station remains intact and should “keep moving.”

Both Moynihan Station and Hudson Yards would bring sizable, long-term benefits to the city’s economy. The main thing is to get them both fully on track now, while Mr. Bloomberg is still mayor. There is no guarantee his successor will share his vision and commitment to the large-scale, transformative, private-public projects that bring out the best of New York.

According to the Observer, Mayor Bloomberg today pointed to the gubernatorial roller coaster in Albany to explain the troubles for his economic development agenda - all the more reason to get behind Governor Paterson's efforts to get projects
under control.

“The chaos in Albany was not good for us,” he told reporters. “I’m not disparaging what they were trying to do, it’s just that when you change administrations, it does slow things down, and nobody expected when the administration changed a year and a third ago, that a year and a third later, they would go through the same process.”

This is a tune the mayor has been singing for a few days now—in London, he was more explicit, saying, “When Eliot Spitzer came in, he basically stopped every project that the Pataki administration negotiated, saying he wanted to look at it.”

We will have plenty more from last night’s event in the next few days.

Read “Saving Moynihan Station,” from The New York Times

Read “Keep Moving on Moynihan Station and Hudson Yards,” from The New York Observer

Read “Gov. Paterson Wants Sachs Break,” by Kenneth Lovett for The Daily News

Yesterday, in remarks before the Association for a Better New York Governor Paterson expressed strong support for Moynihan Station. The state has “to develop the far west side of this area, creating a third downtown center in the downstate region, with the development of the Hudson Yards and the establishment of Moynihan Station,” he said.

Just one day after the Mayor’s congestion pricing plan faltered in Albany, Paterson announced a “blue ribbon panel,” led by former MTA Chair Richard Ravitch, to “ameliorate the hole in our capital budget.” He said the panel will examine three main issues:

One is how to balance the subsidizing of the MTA Capital Plan, through the subscription of those who use the services and a broad balance of taxes for businesses and the rest of the public.

Secondly, what we want to look at are the elements of Mayor Bloomberg’s plan that all of us like, and that perhaps we can still weave them into the process

And finally, we have to get the MTA out of its habit, which is 25 years old, of refinancing and basically covering debt with excessive borrowing. By 1998, in this country the five largest borrowers were the State of California, the State of New York, the City of New York, the State of Massachusetts and the MTA. The MTA doesn’t even have a Governor and they are the fifth largest debtor in the entire country. That has to be changed.

In conclusion, Governor Paterson evoked New York’s history for encouragement about thinking and building big in tough economic times:

Finally, I just want to address the issue that I’m sure many people have, that how can we be talking about all of these creative projects at a time when we have fiscal deficit. It is actually I think the paradigm that most separates the foreparents of the State of New York and the City of New York from others, that even in the midst of crisis they fought, they suffered and they paid for it, but they went ahead and what they won was the greatest city in the world, developed from the dreams and aspiration of people who looked doubt in the face and went forward anyway. It is really amazing that six of the nine years that they were starting to establish the economic development, between 1820 and 1840, their budgets were in deficit. On January 20, 1930, right at the outset of the Depression, they put a shovel in the ground to build the Empire State Building. By March 1, 1931, it was built and it was open. Thirteen months. This was done by people we knew.

In 1939, still reeling from the Depression, on November 1st, John D. Rockefeller hammered the final nail into the construction at 10 Rockefeller Plaza, and introduced the public to Rockefeller Center. We can prevail during these particular times. No one knew this better than Gov. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, when he said in the early 1930s that out of crisis, out of tribulation, out of disaster human kind raises itself to share what is a greater vision, what is a greater ability and what is a more pure purpose. We can do this if we engage that new spirit of cooperation, and work toward a common goal. And if we work hard enough there will be a time when people will stand on this stage at another ABNY breakfast and talk about how the New York at the turn of the century endured its financial problems. And if we try hard enough, we may be able to look back in just a very few years and be very proud of the work we’ve done.

Read the complete speech here

Or watch a video!

On Saturday, the New York Times editorial page said reviving Moynihan Station is the toughest job on Governor Paterson’s agenda, but he has a clear opportunity to take charge:

The Dolan family, owners of Madison Square Garden, announced on Thursday that they were pulling out of negotiations and were planning to renovate the arena.

The timing of the announcement suggests that the Dolans are frustrated with the delays. They may well be taking advantage of what they see as confusion or weakness in the governor’s office to bolster their negotiating position. Certainly there is confusion. After the departure of Gov. Eliot Spitzer and his chief administrator on this project, nobody is really in charge of final negotiations on design and funding.

One intriguing option, pushed most recently by Senator Charles Schumer, would be to let the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey take over the project. The Port Authority could fill the leadership vacuum and bring in some of its own finances.

Governor Paterson could show that he is in charge by calling a summit meeting of the big players — Gov. Jon Corzine of New Jersey, Mayor Bloomberg, the Dolans, developers and executives of the Port Authority. This high-level group should hammer out a strategy to move forward on this important civic project before it really is too late.

Read “Incoming at the Governor’s Office,” from The New York Times

Today, according to the The New York Times Senator Charles Schumer urged the state to cede control of Moynihan Station to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey:

“It makes eminent sense for Port Authority to do this,” Senator Schumer said in an interview today. “They have the know-how and they have the resources that could help make it happen.”

The Port Authority, which plans to build a second commuter rail tunnel underneath the Hudson River that would connect with Pennsylvania Station, is keen on the idea. Indeed, the developers had hoped that Port Authority would get involved after they became frustrated with the inaction of Mr. Spitzer.”

Governor Paterson managed to take time out of his busy budget-making schedule to issue a statement in support of the project:

The immediate task we have in front of us is to secure the necessary funding and complete the environmental process. New York State is willing to lead by example in helping to provide funding for this project, but we can’t do it alone. We will need commitments from the developers, New York City, and the federal government to make this project a reality. It is critically important that we ensure that this project is on firm financial footing, especially given the challenging fiscal times facing all levels of government.

I will consider the suggestion of Senator Schumer as well as suggestions from other stakeholders. Certainly the Port Authority has expertise in developing major transportation projects and has always played an important role in funding major regional transportation projects. I will be evaluating their future role as a partner in this project in the days ahead.

Read “Schumer Urges Action on a New Penn Station,” by Charles Bagli for The New York Times