Word: koch
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
What is said to have changed Koch's politics was stepping into a job that requires him to pay the bills himself. He took over a city that was not unlike his family in the Depression?only in worse shape because it owed more?and so he applied a Depression mentality to it. His basic governing maxim is: "Don't spend what you don't have." It sounds simple enough, but it was too difficult for Koch's predecessors, who spent a billion a year that New York did not have and pushed the city to the brink of bankruptcy...
...must be said too that New York's economic survival has been due to circumstance as well as human genius. While federal outlays have grown at an annual rate of more than 11% since 1978, Koch has held his city's spending growth to less than 4% a year. But an inflationary economy that increases revenues?even without a real increase in city taxes?has helped...
...Koch's financial success has its dark side. His cutting back has established his reputation as an enemy of the poor. In response, Koch points first to housing, citing the 26,000 major apartment rehabilitations begun in the past two years that will almost entirely benefit the lowest income groups. His main point, however, is philosophical: "We spend 56% of our $14 billion operating budget on services that go only to those people below the poverty line, primarily to 26% of the people in this city. If you have a healthy city financially, who benefits? The poor. Because...
Pleased as he is about balancing the 1982 budget (at $14.7 billion), Koch believes that his city is imperiled by President Reagan's own balancing...
About one-sixth of New York's budget for 1982 depends on federal largesse, and if those funds are not forthcoming, Koch will face the impolitic Hobson's choice looming for most of the nation's mayors ?that of raising taxes or further reducing the very services he needs to beef up. If Reagan's total proposal were to come through as is, Koch predicts that New York would