By Robert Ward, Deputy Director, Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government
Change often takes time. For funders interested in public policy, an object lesson is unfolding right now in New York State.
Let’s go back to July 2009. New York Governor David Paterson was struggling—like leaders in almost all the states—to deal with deep budget shortfalls brought on by the Great Recession. But fiscal crisis was nothing new to New York, where volatile revenues and a longstanding commitment to high levels of spending on education, healthcare, and other services have produced recurring budget gaps in recent decades. Governor Paterson asked Richard Ravitch—a veteran public servant whose accomplishments included rebuilding the MTA a generation earlier—to serve as Lieutenant Governor and to develop solutions that would not only solve the immediate crisis, but prevent new fiscal emergencies in years to come. The Rockefeller Institute of Government provided research and analytical support in partnership with several New York-based sponsors, including the Bodman Foundation, the IBM International Foundation, The New York Community Trust, the Charles H. Revson Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation.
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