CBS Radio – Cities And Securities – discussion on Fiscal Crisis – November 26, 1975 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
In what many considered a cliffhanger ending, with the cavalry appearing at the last possible moment, New York escaped what would have been a complete disaster. Earlier on this November 26th, President Ford delivered an address that many were hoping to hear.
Declaring that “New York has bailed itself out,” President Ford reversed himself earlier in the evening and said that he would ask Congress for authority to provide direct federal loans of up to $2.3 billion a year for three years to help the city avert financial default. Ford, who only a month ago vowed to veto any legislation “that has as its purpose a federal bail-out of New York City to prevent default,” announced at. a nationally televised news conference that he would seek “a temporary line of credit under stringent conditions” to aid the city.
The President based his reversal on the Albany legislature’s passage of Gov. Carey’s multibillion-dollar austerity program and on the fact that even with the cutbacks and new taxes in the plan, “New. York City will still lack enough funds to cover its day to day operating expenses.
As outlined by Ford and White House officials, the administration’s plan would provide the city with “seasonal” assistance normally from July through March to cover operating expenses that usually would be met through short-term borrowing from the private sector. Ford’s plan, to be submitted in legislation entitled the “New York City Seasonal Financing Act of 1975,” would require the city to repay its loans by the end of each fiscal year. The full program would end at the close of fiscal year 1978. By Dec. 11 L. William Seidman, Ford’s top economic adviser told reporters that if Congress acted swiftly when it returned from Thanksgiving recess next week, the first federal loan money some $140 million would reach the city by Dec. 11, the date Gov. Carey had targeted for default without federal aid.
To discuss the issue and the turn of events, CBS Radio presented a special broadcasts called Cities And Securities, where this latest news was mulled over and its implications were speculated.
