Dick Ravitch, New York’s fiscal superman
SUBWAY CARS were blanketed with graffiti inside and out when Richard Ravitch, who died on June 25th, became the head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in 1979. Years of low investment meant the subway’s infrastructure was falling apart. Maintenance was deferred for months, if not years. The MTA’s workers had not had a pay rise in five years. The agency was deep in the red.
When the governor at the time, Hugh Carey, asked Mr Ravitch to become head of the MTA, which operates the subway, along with commuter lines, buses and some tunnels and bridges, he told the governor he was crazy to even ask. In his 2014 memoir Mr Ravitch wrote that “no one in his right mind would want to manage a system in the MTA’s condition.” But subway lines are the arteries of New York City. So Mr Ravitch, a regular rider, took the job, and arranged $8bn in investment using long-term financing to rebuild the system.
Luckily for New York, Mr Ravitch took a lot of tough jobs. In 1975, shortly after banks said they would no longer lend to the Urban Development Corp, a state authority, Carey appointed Mr Ravitch as its head. He kept it out of bankruptcy. Then he helped keep New York City from insolvency after it had been shut out of the bond market. Mr Ravitch helped create a financial-control board, which stabilised the city’s finances for decades, including after the September 11th attacks and the 2007-08 recession.
2023-07-06 06:54:57
Original from www.economist.com
rnrn