WTC Records Folder 0140 label, 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

a LEVEL 1 - 1 OF 7 STORIES

Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company The New York Times

October 9, 2001, Tuesday, Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section A; Page 25; Column 1; Editorial Desk

LENGTH: 1014 words

HEADLINE: Fiscal Disaster the City Can't Face Alone

BYLINE: By Felix -Rohatyn; Felix G. Rohatyn, ambassador to France from 1997 to 2000, was chairman of the Municipal Assistance Corporation from 1975 to 1993.

BODY: "Anything it takes to help New York." That sentiment from George W. Bush, expressed on Sept. 13, is in obvious contrast to the feelings of an otherwise not-so-different president, Gerald Ford, as summarized in the famous 1975 Daily News headline: "Ford to City: Drop Dead." President Ford eventually did come to understand that the country couldn't afford to let its largest city, then in fiscal crisis, go bankrupt. Now, in a disaster for the city economy that has very different causes, President Bush's continuing support will be The New York Times, October 9, 2001

crucial. New York does not have the resources to recover on its own.

The city is in greater economic jeopardy today than it was in the fiscal crisis of 1975, and Gov. George Pataki, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and our ongressional delegation should propose a long-term federal program of assistance. New York has the country's sympathy and admiration: under the leadership of Mayor Giuliani and with the strong support of Governor Pataki, the city and its citizens have conducted themselves heroically after a murderous assault. President Bush immediately offered $20 billion in federal assistance, and for the moment, Congress appears to be supportive. But the long-term prospects are daunting.

Before Sept. 11 the city was already feeling the bite of a significant national downturn. This came on top of the stock market collapse of Internet and telecommunications companies, serious downward pressures on the financial services sector, and the increasing impact of these declines on city revenues. The additional emotional and economic shocks of Sept. 11 are only beginning to be perceived. They are already quite serious; their ultimate impact is impossible to predict.

The city has had 20 consecutive balanced budgets, in good times and in bad. The fiscal structure and controls created in 1975 -- the Municipal The New York Times, October 9, 2001

Assistance Corporation and the Financial Control Board -- helped achieve this good record. But estimates of the city deficit in the next fiscal year are now put at $4 billion and are likely to rise to at least $6 billion. Estimates of the state's revenue losses in the same period are $2 billion to $6 billion.

For the last year or so, the weakness of our economy has been understated by economists looking for rosy scenarios and by securities salesmen on television

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