“We are in a perilous time”

Those were the words this morning by John Faso at a Crain’s business breakfast. Crain’s gave Faso the chance to speak in front of a live audience and media to discuss his plans if elected governor and what he thought some of the most pressing problems the State currently faced were.

Overall I personally continue to be impressed with John Faso. He knows the issues and has good solutions. He presents his argument in a way that ordinary New Yorkers can understand focusing on topics that will force all voters in New York to listen, making Spitzer vulnerable should he get the Republican nomination.

During the breakfast Faso made dozens of excellent points and clearly painted a picture that shows a State in need of dramatic reform. Most of his points are things we have been hearing about for a long time, like Medicare reform, school budget reform and tax reform. The difference is he just doesn’t say it; he backs it up with facts that New Yorkers can visualize and understand.

For example he reiterated the news reports from a couple weeks ago that stated how New York is losing 200,000 people a year to other states. He followed it up by explaining how New York is loosing its power in Washington because of it, as the number of representatives for New York has dropped from 42 to 29 and after the next census in 2010 will fall further to 27. He went on to explain how those leaving are the ones the State most desperately needs to stay, the most affluent. Because of New York’s high death tax wealthy retired people are leaving the state to go down south where estate taxes are friendlier. John Faso backed it up with conversations he has had with estate attorneys in New York. As someone who manages money for wealthy families and deals with estate attorney I can say that John Faso’s comments are not made up and right on.

John Faso also made sure not to loose the opportunity to go after Spitzer. He asked people to think of all of Spitzer’s comments so far. He noted if you’ve been paying attention you would know Elliot has already promised 100 of millions of dollars is new spending to all sorts of groups, including building two new train lines. John then went on to point out how Spitzer’s camp has refused to comment and rule out raising taxes. As Faso notes this would make sense since how else will he be able to pay for all his promises. John Faso has it right when he says a candidate who doesn’t rule out raising taxes prior to getting elected always raises taxes.

Finally I think if today’s breakfast proved anything, it’s not to fall prey to the polls. If Faso can continue to explain the issues as well as he has done so far, Spitzer will have his job cut out for him. Without Spitzer’s normal tools of lawsuits and courts to beat his opponent, his victory is far from certain.