Unelected multi-millionaire takes charge in New York budget crisis

[Hannah Bell]

For well over a month, the media in New York, led by the voice of the erstwhile liberal establishment, the New York Times, had waged a concerted campaign for Paterson’s resignation over a pair of scandals... The first concerned the governor’s alleged involvement in an effort to convince his aide’s girlfriend to drop a domestic violence case. The second concerned free tickets to New York Yankees games...

From the outset, it was clear that the substance of the charges — penny-ante even by the standards of Albany corruption — were secondary to unstated political motives.. The Times could never summon similar moral outrage to demand the resignation of Bush and Cheney...

Enter Richard Ravitch.

Installed as lieutenant governor in July 2009...Ravitch, 76, was confirmed by the state’s high court only last September in a narrowly decided and controversial ruling that such an appointment could be made, despite the state constitution making no provision for filling the position without an election.

Heir to the multi-million-dollar fortune of one of New York City’s major real estate developers, Ravitch has played a prominent role in state politics — as well as on Wall Street — for 35 years.

He rose to prominence as one of the principal architects of the draconian measures used to pull New York City back from the brink of bankruptcy in 1975-76.

This so-called bailout was accomplished by means of drastic budget cuts, the imposition of tuition for the first time in the city’s university system, the destruction of some 50,000 city workers’ jobs and the slashing of wages... Moreover, the city’s finances were placed under the effective control of the banks, with the creation of a Financial Control Board empowered to veto municipal spending as well as labor contracts...

Last week, Ravitch unveiled a sweeping proposal for confronting the state’s deficit crisis, designed to slash tens of billions of dollars from state spending over the next five years.

The plan would create a similar financial review board, curtailing the power of elected state legislators, and empower the governor to make across-the-board cuts by executive fiat if the budget were found to be unbalanced.

Ravitch’s plan has drawn fire from some right-wing opponents because it calls for limited borrowing... to make the transition to a smaller government and drastically reduced public services. Ravitch has countered that introducing $9 billion in cuts immediately would...create an untenable social crisis. The concern clearly is that such measures would provoke upheavals in the working class.

In one of the most significant elements of the deficit plan, any failure to balance the budget would trigger immediate default provisions requiring repayment to bondholders. In short, the state’s finances would be held directly hostage to Wall Street...

It can hardly be a coincidence that, in the aftermath of Ravitch’s budget proposal, the hue and cry over Paterson’s alleged misconduct has suddenly ceased...

“Albany’s scandals” were promoted as part of a deliberate distraction, with the Times playing an indispensable role. The public was told that the most burning issues in New York state politics were...free tickets to see Yankees games.

Meanwhile, budget plans are being crafted that will force the shutdown of schools, hospitals and daycare centers, deprive the elderly and ill of care, turn homeless people into the streets and destroy the jobs of tens if not hundreds of thousands — all to ensure the continued profitability of Wall Street.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/pate-m18.shtml

[Hannah Bell]

1. kik

[Union Yes]

2. KNR.. disgusting but kick for exposure. nt

[Hannah Bell]

3. no one seems interested that the enforcer of the 1970s squeeze on workers is back in the saddle.