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| Re: M.T.A. Cuts Delay Some Big Projects Until 2010 (639188) | |||
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Re: M.T.A. Cuts Delay Some Big Projects Until 2010 |
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Posted by Russ on Tue Jun 24 20:41:33 2008, in response to Re: M.T.A. Cuts Delay Some Big Projects Until 2010, posted by trainsarefun on Tue Jun 24 18:30:53 2008. First of all, it's nice to have you here, Mr. Sander.ad hominem abusive by proxy? That's an impressive display of a weak argument! There was already an explanation. The revenue projections changed. They changed over the course of a few days? It wasn't a few days. It was 21 days. Distorting facts to emphasize your point only emphasizes how weak your argument is. There has to be a time interval between the events, and if it was 21 days, then it was 21 days. Now, for the third time, do you have any evidence that Lee Sander knew about the changes in revenue projections while he was promoting the MTA's plan? Let's go to the videotape, Mr. Sander. On March 3rd, you said, Oh, there's that ad hominem abusive by proxy attack again. How clever of you. Here on the occasion of the MTA's 40th anniversary I have a lot of good news to share with you on that front. I have reviewed our 2008 revenues to date, which are in line with our budget projections. As a result, I will recommend to the Board that we move ahead with the service enhancements included in the financial plan. 21 days passes. 21 days. Not 21 minutes. 21 days. Gary Dellaverson says to NYT on March 24th, excerpted, Gary J. Dellaverson, the authority’s chief financial officer, used words like "gloomy" and "frightening" to describe the decline in what has been a key source of the authority’s prosperity in recent years. Real estate tax revenues in February and March were below budget forecasts, which had already been trimmed back substantially from previous years. "We took these tax projections down quite dramatically from last year, and they are quite dramatically underperforming," Mr. Dellaverson said. The real estate boom had helped fuel large budget surpluses at the authority, but Mr. Dellaverson said the two-month decline was a "cautionary flag." Now let's look at the conspiracy theory: on March 3rd that you had reviewed revenues "to date", whih even if we say that it didn't include any of March, must have included February, otherwise you plainly were incorrect in saying "to date" No, that is not necessarily true. It might be true, but unless you can establish that February tax revenues were known on 10:30am, March 3rd - which was a Monday, this point is invalid. Again, it my be true, but considering that the speech took place at 10:30am on the first Monday of the month, it is highly unlikely that the data was compiled and available to him. ...2008 revenues were in line with projections, when Mr. Dellaverson flatly contradicts... You might have a point here if you can establish a few things, which you have not done. First, when are the numbers for revenues from real estate transactions normally released to the MTA? If you can establish that it is during the month on a week by week basis, then I'll concede this to you, and call for Lee Sander to answer for what he said, and perhaps even for him to step down. There is another possibility, that is very plausible, and that would easily explain the seeming contradiction between Mr. Sander's speech on March 3rd, and Mr Dellaverson's statement 21 days later; When they saw the numbers for February, they got very, very worried. March numbers would not be available on March 21st, which makes Mr Dellaverson's statement inaccurate. He could not have known what all of March's numbers would be with more than a week in the month left. So why would he make that statement? Probably because when they saw the February numbers, they chased after the March numbers on a week by week basis. By the time that March 21st hit, the trend was very clear. Ascribing such a responsibility to any executive, agency, or private business for that matter, where this is not part of their core competency is severely divorced from reality. The expectation that Lee Sander and the MTA should possess economic analysis that is superior to that of professional financial analysts and economists is so ridiculous that neither Mr. Sander, nor the MTA should be expected to answer for that. Such an absurd view, however, does help to concoct the conspiracy theories that I've been reading. I believe that a man who is the chief executive of a multibillion dollar enterprise should know the difference between up and down. If that's not within your core competency, then you're in the wrong line of work. That's an absurdly simplistic and reductionist reply. You have to establish that Lee Sander, or the MTA should posess economic forcasting that is superior to what is found in the best financial institutions in the world. You won't establish that because you can't So, at this stage, we still have no solid evidence that Lee Sander knew about the revised revenue projections when he was promoting the 40 year plan. Just a conspiracy theory. |
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