On 'pushing down'

Wanted to clarify something in my story on Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo vetoing a plan that would have allowed schools to borrow money to cover pension costs.

I quoted Assemblyman Ken Blankenbush saying that it's "pushing the debt down."

He's saying that I misquoted him, and he sort of has a point — I could have picked a better quote. He says that he said pushing the debt down "the road." The interview was about two weeks ago, so he may well be right.

When I was looking through my notes, I thought of the phrase "pushing the debt down" as just forgetting about it until later, which is why I used it. I didn't intend to have Mr. Blankenbush say that it would reduce the debt, which "pushing the debt down" could very well signal.

So... My bad. Mr. Blankenbush wasn't arguing that the move would have decreased debt for school districts. He was saying that it was putting it off until later and that was fiscally irresponsible. That's the message I tried to convey, but didn't do a good job of executing.