Transit Expert Questions Albany's Sobriety

I was hoping to make last night's forum on the M.T.A.'s current status, but last minute moving responsibilities had me elsewhere. I knew Azi at the Politicker would be there though. He caught one notable moment where panelist Peter Goldmark made a quip about Albany politicians and their ideas concerning the fate of the M.T.A. Although it was meant in jest, I do wonder how far off from the truth that joke was.

From PolitickerNY:

The highlight, I think, came nine-and-a-half minutes into the event, when Peter Goldmark, a former head of the Port Authority and member of the Ravitch Commission, which recommended tolling the East River Bridges, criticized state lawmakers for their alternative plans to fund the M.T.A.

“I have never seen so much squirming, squawking and squealing in my life,” Goldmark said, before referring to one of the alternative plans as “cockamamie.”

“There was one plan that recommended the pension system borough (sp: borrow) money and then lend it to the M.T.A. Are these people smoking something?” Goldmark asked.

If only grandstanding, obstructionism and corruption could be rolled up together into leafy form. Then there'd be a significant number of legislators walking the capitol with red and glazed-over eyes.