In The News: "George Pataki to be speaker at first Naples/Fort Myers Town Hall lecture"

“George Pataki to be speaker at first Naples/Fort Myers Town Hall lecture”
Naples Daily News – 1/20/2007

George Pataki, former governor of New York, will be in Naples on Monday to speak about American leadership and how it relates to last November’s election and future public policy.

“If you take a look at the history of America, whenever we face very real challenges what has been most evident about our country has been the sense of unity and common purpose,” Pataki said Friday, speaking by phone from a New York City office. “… Now we are facing enormous challenges and when you look back to last November you didn’t see that. … I’m going to talk about that and how we can change that going forward.”

About 900 people are expected to attend the first Naples/Fort Myers Town Hall lecture at 6 p.m. at the Naples Grande Resort and Club, according to Rick Borman, vice president of media and public relations for the speaker series.

“We asked Pataki to speak because we were looking for a political leader who we thought made a difference,” Borman said. “He presided over 9/11 and did it so well that he really showed his mettle. …When you’re looking for somebody who really represents what’s good about American politics he comes to mind for us.”

Pataki, who has been considering a bid for the presidency in 2008, did not say “yes,” or “no” when asked about the subject, but rather that he has spoken with his family and decided to focus on public policy at this point.

“I think there are a lot of candidates but there hasn’t been that much focus on the policies that Americans are looking to in the future,” he said.

On the Iraq war, Pataki said he thinks that the country should seek a “far more broad approach” to “the war against radical Islam.”

“We have to define what we mean by victory in Iraq,” Pataki said. “…We have to look to make sure in the end that we don’t lose at the hands of terrorists, that we don’t leave Iraq in a position where it places Americans in greater jeopardy of being attacked again. … But on the other hand, we can’t have a high level of confidence that a small increase in troops is going to change the situation.”

Pataki declined to comment on President Bush’s plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq or on troop withdrawal, saying that he will be addressing the topic in detail within the next week or so in a speech.

“One of the things I’m going to talk about Monday night is that it’s so easy to have ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers and to simplify things with phrases like ‘cut and run,’ ‘troop surge,’” he said. “…We’ve gotten away from (the idea) that it’s far more complex and you have to be far more thoughtful and analytical.”

During his three, four-year terms as New York’s governor, Pataki learned that having a strong commitment to environmental protection and a strong commitment to economic growth weren’t inconsistent, but synergistic, he said.

“My experience has been that when you commit to preserving open space, cleaning the air and water, expanding recreational opportunities and having smart growth by rehabilitating some of the older communities instead of sprawling out into green areas of a region, that you not only improve the environment, you also improve the economic climate,” Pataki said.

New York has about 700,000 more private sector jobs after his time in office and has preserved more than 1 million acres of open space, Pataki said, linking the environmental efforts to the job growth.

“In the 21st century when people can locate their businesses literally anywhere, they want to go to a place where you have clean air, recreational opportunities, open space and quality communities,” he said. “They also want to go to a place where the costs — the tax costs, the regulatory costs, the costs for other parts of doing business like workers compensation — are as low as they can be.”

New York could learn from Florida’s experiences with taxation, Pataki said.

“I believe that when you lower the tax burden government places on people, you can have the economic growth that drives the revenues that allow you to invest in things like schools and the environment and health care and other governmental areas where people look to see more government activity,” he said.

According to the governor, he cut more taxes than any of his predecessors in New York. He also worked to repeal New York’s estate tax twice, but was unsuccessful both times. It was one of his unmet goals as governor, he said.

“I know that’s one of the reasons why a number of former New Yorkers are in Naples more than six months of the year as opposed to just going down during the colder months,” he said.

Other speakers scheduled to come to Naples for the 24th annual Town Hall lecture series include: Marta Sahagun de Fox, former first lady of Mexico; Tom Wolfe, author and social commentator; Lawrence Summers, former president of Harvard University, United States treasury secretary and World Bank chief economist.