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New York State Authorities Budget Office

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The New York State Authorities Budget Office ( ABO ) is an independent office in the state of New York established by the Public Authorities Accountability Act of 2005 and signed into law by Governor Pataki in 2006. In 2009, the ABO was restructured as part of the Public Authorities Reform Act.

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115-586: The ABO's mission is to make New York State public-benefit corporations more accountable and transparent. The ABO receives assistance from the New York State Department of State . Its powers and duties include: Jeff Pearlman is the Director of the ABO. It publishes an annual report, available on its website, detailing the financial and operational situation of each state authority, IDA, and local authority in

230-452: A Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University in 1914, Moses became attracted to New York City reform politics. At the start a committed idealist , Moses developed several plans to rid New York of patronage hiring practices, including authoring a 1919 proposal to reorganize the New York state government, which was ultimately not adopted but drew the attention of Belle Moskowitz ,

345-604: A balanced community of commercial, residential, retail, and park space within its designated 92-acre site on the southern tip of Manhattan. The Long Island Power Authority or LIPA ["lie-pah"], a municipal subdivision of the State of New York, was created under the Long Island Power Act of 1985 to acquire the Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO)'s assets and securities. A second Long Island Power Authority (LIPA),

460-738: A bridge. He also clashed with the chief engineer of the project, Ole Singstad , who preferred a tunnel instead of a bridge. Only a lack of a key federal approval thwarted the bridge project. President Roosevelt ordered the War Department to assert that bombing a bridge in that location would block East River access to the Brooklyn Navy Yard upstream. Thwarted, Moses dismantled the New York Aquarium on Castle Clinton and moved it to Coney Island in Brooklyn, where it grew much bigger. This

575-648: A favorable lease on a building in Amsterdam, New York . This company closed down, but the Overcoat Development Corporation continues to exist to service the long-term lease it signed. The Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation 's responsibility is to develop Roosevelt Island , a small strip of land in the East River that is part of the borough of Manhattan . Some of the public benefit corporations outside of New York City's metropolitan area, or serving

690-614: A friend and trusted advisor to Governor Al Smith . When the state Secretary of State's position became appointive rather than elective, Smith named Moses. He served from 1927 to 1929. Moses rose to power with Smith, who was elected as governor in 1918, and then again in 1922. With Smith's support, Moses set in motion a sweeping consolidation of the New York State government. During that period Moses began his first foray into large-scale public work initiatives, while drawing on Smith's political power to enact legislation. This helped create

805-585: A long period and she may have changed the will of her own accord, and implies that Robert's subsequent treatment of Paul may have been legally justifiable but was morally questionable. During the last years of his life, Moses concentrated on his lifelong love of swimming and was an active member of the Colonie Hill Health Club. Moses died of heart disease on July 29, 1981, at the age of 92 at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip, New York . Moses

920-553: A member of the Temporary Long Island Railroad Commission, installed after the Richmond Hill train crash on November 22, 1950, that claimed 79 lives. The Commission recommended the state purchase and operation by non-profit public authority of the railway service. Moses had influence outside the New York area as well. Public officials in many smaller American cities hired him to design freeway networks in

1035-463: A minimum 55-yard (50 m) length, underwater lighting, heating, filtration, and low-cost construction materials. To fit the requirement for cheap materials, each building would be built using elements of the Streamline Moderne and Classical architectural styles. The buildings would also be near "comfort stations", additional playgrounds, and spruced-up landscapes. Construction for some of

1150-503: A more complete list, see a list of New York State public-benefit corporations Below are some of the authorities operating in and around the New York City metropolitan area . Fully titled the Hugh L. Carey Battery Park City Authority , according to its official website, the authority is: a New York State public benefit corporation whose mission is to plan, create, co-ordinate and maintain

1265-511: A new executive budget system, and the four-year term limit for the governorship. During the Depression , Moses, along with Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia , was especially interested in creating new pools and other bathing facilities, such as those in Jacob Riis Park , Jones Beach , and Orchard Beach . He devised a list of 23 pools around the city. The pools would be built using funds from

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1380-460: A residential complex specifically designed for these veterans, and purportedly trying to make swimming pool water cold in order to drive away potential African American residents in white neighborhoods. People had come to see Moses as a bully who disregarded public input, but until the publication of Caro's book, they had not known many details of his private life—for instance, that his older brother Paul had spent much of his life in poverty. Moses

1495-519: A role in the merged authority, Moses declined to challenge the merger. On March 1, 1968, the TBTA was folded into the MTA and Moses gave up his post as chairman of the TBTA. He eventually became a consultant to the MTA, but its new chairman and the governor froze him out—the promised role did not materialize, and for all practical purposes Moses was out of power. Moses had thought he had convinced Nelson Rockefeller of

1610-655: A staff of 76 people. Its staffing compensation exceeded its operating expenses in 2017 by almost $ 1.5 million in the 2018 New York State Authorities Budget Office report. The New York State Thruway Authority maintains the New York State Thruway , a system of limited-access highways within New York State. The New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC) provides low-cost capital, grants, and expert technical assistance for environmental projects in New York State. The EFC has issued more than $ 13 billion in both tax-exempt and taxable revenue bonds. In 2017,

1725-409: A standalone facility at Tompkinsville Pool . Moses, along with architects Aymar Embury II and Gilmore David Clarke , created a common design for these proposed aquatic centers. Each location was to have distinct pools for diving, swimming, and wading; bleachers and viewing areas; and bathhouses with locker rooms that could be used as gymnasiums. The pools were to have several common features, such as

1840-490: A tunnel connecting Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan . A 1941 publication from the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority claimed that the government had forced them to build a tunnel at "twice the cost, twice the operating fees, twice the difficulty to engineer, and half the traffic," although engineering studies did not support these conclusions, and a tunnel may have held many of the advantages Moses publicly tried to attach to

1955-545: A tunnel. LaGuardia and Lehman as usual had little money to spend, in part due to the Great Depression , while the federal government was running low on funds after recently spending $ 105 million ($ 1.8 billion in 2016) on the Queens-Midtown Tunnel and other City projects and refused to provide any additional funds to New York. Awash in funds from Triborough Bridge tolls, Moses deemed that money could only be spent on

2070-529: A wholly-owned subsidiary of the first, acquired LILCO's transmission and distribution system in June 1998. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) was formed after the September 11 attacks to plan the reconstruction of Lower Manhattan. It was founded by Governor George Pataki and then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. The LMDC is a joint State-City corporation governed by a 16-member Board of Directors, half appointed by

2185-469: A year. The Authority was thus able to raise hundreds of millions of dollars by selling bonds, a method also used by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to fund large public construction projects. Toll revenues rose quickly as traffic on the bridges exceeded all projections. Rather than pay off the bonds, Moses used the revenue to build other toll projects, a cycle that would feed on itself. In

2300-781: Is a subsidiary of the New York Power Authority (it was a subsidiary of the Thruway Authority before 2017). It is responsible for the oversight, administration and maintenance of the New York State Canal System , which consists of the Erie Canal , Cayuga-Seneca Canal, Oswego Canal and Champlain Canal . It is also involved with the development and maintenance of the New York State Canalway Trail and with

2415-513: Is also a Robert Moses Playground in New York City. There are other signs of the surviving appreciation held for him by some circles of the public. A statue of Moses was erected next to the Village Hall in his long-time hometown, Babylon Village, New York . During his tenure as chief of the state park system, the state's inventory of parks grew to nearly 2,600,000 acres (1,100,000 ha). By

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2530-646: Is also attractive because their independent corporate structure theoretically makes them more flexible and efficient than state agencies. Many restrictions placed on state agencies do not apply to public authorities, including, for example, general public bidding requirements (some public bidding requirements do apply under the Public Authorities Law). See Plumbing, Heating, Piping & Air Conditioning Contr. Ass'n v. N.Y.S. Thruway Auth. , 5 N.Y.2d 420 (1959). Most public authorities may also make contracts , and because of public authorities' corporate status, there

2645-633: Is blamed for having destroyed more than a score of neighborhoods by building 13 expressways across New York City and by building large urban renewal projects with little regard for the urban fabric or for human scale. Yet the author is more neutral in his central premise: the city would have developed much differently without Moses. Other U.S. cities were doing the same thing as New York in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s; Boston , San Francisco , and Seattle , for instance, each built highways straight through their downtown areas just as Moses wished to do in New York. The New York City architectural intelligentsia of

2760-481: Is generally, no remedy against the state for the breach of such contracts. John Grace & Co. v. State University Constr. Fund , 44 N.Y.2d 84 (1978). Many public authorities, such as industrial development agencies and the Empire State Development Corporation, can also condemn property. The New York State Public Authorities Control Board was created in 1976 to provide oversight for some of

2875-467: Is now SoHo . This plan and the Mid-Manhattan Expressway both failed politically. One of his most vocal critics during this time was the urban activist Jane Jacobs , whose book The Death and Life of Great American Cities was instrumental in turning opinion against Moses's plans; the city government rejected the expressway in 1964. Moses's power was further eroded by his association with

2990-475: The 1964 New York World's Fair . His projections for attendance of 70 million people for this event proved wildly optimistic, and generous contracts for fair executives and contractors made matters worse economically. Moses's repeated and forceful public denials of the fair's considerable financial difficulties in the face of evidence to the contrary eventually provoked press and governmental investigations, which found accounting irregularities. In his organization of

3105-673: The Governor of New York and half by the Mayor of New York City . The development corporation is a subsidiary of the Empire State Development Corporation. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority manages public transportation in the New York metropolitan area (this includes the New York City Subway and MTA Regional Bus Operations systems, as well as the Long Island Rail Road and

3220-585: The Metro-North Railroad ). The MTA includes the following subsidiaries: The New York City Economic Development Corporation was founded in 1966 as the New York City Public Development Corporation. It is New York City's official economic development corporation . The Overcoat Development Corporation was founded in the 1980s in an attempt to convince a men's outerwear company to relocate to New York from Indiana by offering

3335-706: The New York Mets , who played at Shea until 2008, when the stadium was demolished and replaced with Citi Field . The NFL's New York Jets also played its home games at Shea from 1964 until 1983, after which the team moved its home games to the Meadowlands Sports Complex in New Jersey. Moses's reputation began to fade during the 1960s. Around this time, Moses's political acumen began to fail him, as he unwisely picked several controversial political battles he could not possibly win. For example, his campaign against

3450-660: The New York State Constitution . This allows public authorities to make potentially risky capital and infrastructure investments without directly putting the credit of New York State or its municipalities on the line. As a result, public authorities have become widely used for financing public works, and they are now responsible for more than 90% of the state's debt. The growing influence of public authorities over state and local financing, coupled with their ability to avoid regulations applicable to government agencies, has led to calls for reform. Some reforms were passed in

3565-514: The Robert F. Kennedy Bridge ) opened in 1936, connecting the Bronx , Manhattan , and Queens via three separate spans. Language in its Authority's bond contracts and multi-year Commissioner appointments made it largely impervious to pressure from mayors and governors. While New York City and New York State were perpetually strapped for money, the bridge's toll revenues amounted to tens of millions of dollars

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3680-846: The Robert Moses Causeway on Long Island, and the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant in Lewiston, New York . The Niagara Scenic Parkway in Niagara Falls, New York was originally named the Robert Moses State Parkway in his honor; its name was changed in 2016. The Moses-Saunders Power Dam in Massena, New York also bears his name. Moses also has a school named after him in North Babylon, New York on Long Island; there

3795-554: The Throgs Neck Bridge , as well as several major highways. These roadways and bridges, alongside urban renewal efforts that destroyed huge swaths of tenement housing and replaced them with large public housing projects , transformed the physical fabric of New York and inspired other cities to undertake similar development endeavors. Moses's reputation declined after the publication of Robert Caro 's Pulitzer Prize -winning biography The Power Broker (1974), which cast doubt on

3910-681: The United Nations with its real estate and development needs. There are public benefit corporations that oversee the operations of Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo (Erie County Medical Center Corporation), Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow (Nassau Health Care Corporation), and Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla (Westchester County Health Care Corporation). Robert Moses Robert Moses (December 18, 1888 – July 29, 1981)

4025-623: The Works Progress Administration (WPA), a federal agency created as part of the New Deal to combat the Depression's negative effects. Eleven of these pools were to be designed concurrently and open in 1936. These comprised ten pools at Astoria Park , Betsy Head Park , Crotona Park , Hamilton Fish Park , Highbridge Park , Thomas Jefferson Park , McCarren Park , Red Hook Park , Jackie Robinson Park , and Sunset Park , as well as

4140-433: The federal government found itself with millions of New Deal dollars to spend, yet states and cities had few projects ready. Moses was one of the few local officials who had projects shovel ready . For that reason, New York City was able to obtain significant Works Progress Administration (WPA), Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and other Depression-era funding. One of his most influential and longest-lasting positions

4255-456: The subway system . Moses opposed this idea and fought to prevent it. Lindsay then removed Moses from his post as the city's chief advocate for federal highway money in Washington. The legislature's vote to fold the TBTA into the newly created Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) could have led to a lawsuit by the TBTA bondholders. Since the bond contracts were written into state law, it

4370-408: The "development scheme" mentality cultivated by Moses even though it was the impoverished Pennsylvania Railroad that was actually responsible for the demolition. This casual destruction of one of New York's greatest architectural landmarks helped prompt many city residents to turn against Moses's plans to build a Lower Manhattan Expressway , which would have gone through Greenwich Village and what

4485-552: The 11 pools began in October 1934. By mid-1936, ten of the eleven WPA-funded pools were completed and were being opened at a rate of one per week. Combined, the facilities could accommodate 66,000 swimmers. The eleven WPA pools were considered for New York City landmark status in 1990. Ten of the pools were designated as New York City landmarks in 2007 and 2008. Moses allegedly fought to keep African American swimmers out of his pools and beaches. One subordinate remembers Moses saying

4600-763: The 1930s and 40s. Much of Moses' power base resulted from his tight control of the Triborough Bridge Authority , which allowed him to earmark revenues from tolls on the bridge for other projects in New York City and around the state. He also served as president of the Jones Beach Parkway Authority (1933–1963), president of the Bethpage State Park Authority (1933–1963), and chairman of the New York Power Authority (1954–1962). Moses, through his control of these authorities,

4715-673: The 1930s to the 1960s, Robert Moses was responsible for the construction of the Triborough , Marine Parkway , Throgs Neck , Bronx-Whitestone , Henry Hudson , and Verrazzano-Narrows Bridges . His other projects included the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and Staten Island Expressway (together constituting most of Interstate 278 ); the Cross-Bronx Expressway ; many New York State parkways ; and other highways. Federal interest had shifted from parkway to freeway systems, and

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4830-747: The 1930s to well into the 1960s because the parkways and expressways that were built replaced, at least to some extent, the planned subway lines. The 1968 Program for Action (which was never completed) was hoped to counter that. Other critics charge that he precluded the use of public transit, which would have allowed non-car-owners to enjoy the elaborate recreation facilities he built. Caro's The Power Broker also accused Moses of building low bridges across his parkways to make them inaccessible to public transit buses, thereby restricting "the use of state parks by poor and lower-middle-class families" who did not own cars. Caro also wrote that Moses attempted to discourage Black people in particular from visiting Jones Beach,

4945-408: The 1940s and 1950s, who largely believed in such proponents of the automobile as Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe , had supported Moses. Many other cities, like Newark , Chicago , and St. Louis , also built massive, unattractive public housing projects. Caro also points out that Moses demonstrated racist tendencies . These allegedly included opposing black World War II veterans to move into

5060-551: The 1940s and early 1950s. For example, Portland, Oregon hired Moses in 1943; his plan included a loop around the city center , with spurs running through neighborhoods. Of this plan, only I-405 , its links with I-5 , and the Fremont Bridge were built. Moses himself did not know how to drive an automobile. Moses's highways in the first half of the 20th century were parkways—curving, landscaped "ribbon parks" that were intended to be pleasures to travel on, as well as "lungs for

5175-423: The 1994 case Schulz v. State , 84 N.Y.2d 231. As the court explained, state debt limits were first enacted as a reaction to fiscal crises caused by the state's lending of its credit to "irresponsible" canal and railroad corporations in the early nineteenth century. The state was forced to assume these obligations, which amounted to more than three-fifths of the state's entire debt. In 1846, a referendum requirement

5290-560: The Authority Budget Office in order "to provide the governor and the legislator with conclusions and opinions concerning the performance of public authorities and to study, review and report on the operations, practices and finances of public authorities...." The ABO is intended to promote transparency and accountability and to improve authority governance. The New York State Constitution , Art. X, sec. 5, provides that public benefit corporations may only be created by special act of

5405-636: The Capital District of New York State ( Albany , Schenectady , and Rensselaer counties plus part of Saratoga). The function of CDTA is to operate public transportation as well as to operate the Amtrak stations in the service area (Albany-Rennselaer, Schenectady, and Saratoga Springs). It includes the following subsidies: The Central New York Regional Transportation Authority manages most public transportation in four Central New York counties - Onondaga, Oneida, Oswego and Cayuga. This includes bus service serving

5520-521: The Court of Appeals held in Williamsburgh Savings Bank v. State , 243 N.Y. 231, that the state could disclaim any moral obligation for public authority debts. However, amendments to the 1938 Constitution overruled this case and completely disclaimed the state's responsibility for any public authority debt. The widespread use of public authorities in New York State was pioneered by Robert Moses in

5635-573: The EFC had operating expenses of $ 442.35 million, an outstanding debt of $ 5.917 billion, and 115 employees. The EFC's 2009-2010 budget was in excess of $ 500 million. The statutory basis for substantially all EFC activity stems from Title 12 of Article 5 of the NYS Public Authorities Law (also called the "EFC Act") in 1970. The Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA) is a public benefit organization which provides transportation services to

5750-896: The Office of the State Comptroller had identified at least 640 state and local authorities. The current count stands at 1,098. Some of the most well known major public benefit corporations in New York State include the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (actually a bi-state authority created by interstate compact ), the Metropolitan Transportation Authority , and the Empire State Development Corporation . New York has hundreds of lesser-known public benefit corporations, including industrial development agencies and local development corporations. The Public Authorities Accountability Act of 2005 created

5865-498: The Public Authorities Accountability Act of 2005. The New York State Authorities Budget Office , in their 2018 annual report, noted that there were 47 state authorities and 531 local authorities, including 109 IDAs and 292 not-for-profit corporations created locally, that they provided oversight for in New York State. According to this same ABO report, the operating expenses in 2017 for the 47 state authorities

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5980-643: The Soviet Union, were all BIE members and they declined to participate, instead reserving their efforts for Expo 67 in Montreal . After the World's Fair debacle, New York City mayor John Lindsay , along with Governor Nelson Rockefeller , sought to direct toll revenues from the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority 's (TBTA) bridges and tunnels to cover deficits in the city's then financially ailing agencies, including

6095-659: The State of New York. This New York –related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . New York state public-benefit corporations New York state public-benefit corporations and authorities operate like quasi-private corporations, with boards of directors appointed by elected officials, overseeing both publicly operated and privately operated systems. Public-benefit nonprofit corporations share characteristics with government agencies, but they are exempt from many state and local regulations. Of particular importance, they can issue their own debt, allowing them to bypass limits on state debt contained in

6210-497: The State". Because of this, the Court of Appeals has repeatedly affirmed that public authorities are distinct from the state and that the state carries no moral obligation to repay their debts. Although the Constitution prohibits the state from lending its credit to public authorities, it does allow the state to make gifts of money to authorities. As a practical result, this has resulted in some authorities receiving annual funding from

6325-792: The Taconic State Park Commission, who favored the prompt construction of a parkway through the Hudson Valley . Moses succeeded in diverting funds to his Long Island parkway projects (the Northern State Parkway , the Southern State Parkway and the Wantagh State Parkway ), although the Taconic State Parkway was later completed as well. Moses helped build Long Island's Meadowbrook State Parkway . It

6440-400: The United States. Never elected to any office, Moses held various positions throughout his more-than-40-year career. He held as many as 12 titles at once, including New York City Parks Commissioner and chairman of the Long Island State Park Commission . By working closely with New York governor Al Smith early in his career, he became expert in writing laws and navigating and manipulating

6555-435: The anti-development sentiment was now insurmountable and in 1973 Rockefeller canceled plans for the bridge. Moses's image suffered a further blow in 1974 with the publication of The Power Broker , a Pulitzer Prize –winning biography by Robert A. Caro . Caro's 1,200-page opus (edited down from 2,000 or so pages) showed Moses generally in a negative light; essayist Phillip Lopate writes that "Moses's satanic reputation with

6670-563: The authority. Ciulla v. State , 77 N.Y.S.2d 545 (N.Y. Ct. Cl. 1948). However, public authority employees are covered by the ethics regulations included in section 74 of the Public Officers Law, and the Public Authorities Accountability Act of 2005 imposed additional ethics requirements on board members of some public authorities. Importantly, authority board members are now required to attend training sessions on ethics and governance issues. The New York State Comptroller's Office lists four types of public benefit corporations and authorities: For

6785-580: The bridge option. This had not been the first time Moses pressed for a bridge over a tunnel. He had tried to upstage the Tunnel Authority when the Queens-Midtown Tunnel was being planned. He had raised the same arguments, which failed due to their lack of political support. Moses's power increased after World War II after Mayor LaGuardia retired and a series of successors consented to almost all of his proposals. Named city "construction coordinator" in 1946 by Mayor William O'Dwyer , Moses became New York City's de facto representative in Washington . Moses

6900-423: The bridge was opposed by the Regional Plan Association , historical preservationists, Wall Street financial interests, property owners, various high society people, construction unions , the Manhattan borough president , Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia , and governor Herbert H. Lehman . Despite this, Moses favored a bridge, which could both carry more automobile traffic and serve as a higher visibility monument than

7015-556: The builder who can remove ghettos without moving people as I hail the chef who can make omelets without breaking eggs." Additionally, there were allegations that Moses selectively chose locations for recreational facilities based on the racial compositions of a neighborhood, such as when he selected sites for eleven pools that opened in 1936. According to one author, Moses purposely placed some pools in neighborhoods with mainly white populations to deter African Americans from using them, and other pools intended for African Americans, such as

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7130-477: The centerpiece of the Long Island state park system, by such measures as making it difficult for Black groups to get permits to park buses, and assigning Black lifeguards to "distant, less developed beaches". While the exclusion of commercial vehicles and the use of low bridges where appropriate were standard on earlier parkways, where they had been instituted for aesthetic reasons, Moses appears to have made greater use of low bridges, which his aide Sidney Shapiro said

7245-537: The cities of Syracuse , Utica , Rome , Oswego and Auburn . The CNYRTA includes the following subsidiaries: The New York State Bridge Authority owns and operates five bridges on the Hudson River . The Olympic Regional Development Authority was designed to administer and manage the Whiteface Mountain Ski Center and the other Winter Olympic venues used during the Lake Placid 1980 Winter Olympics . The New York Power Authority provides electricity throughout New York State. The New York State Canal Corporation

7360-538: The city and removed the Zoning Commissioner from power in the process. Moses was also empowered as the sole authority to negotiate in Washington for New York City projects. By 1959, he had overseen construction of 28,000 apartment units on hundreds of acres of land. In clearing the land for high-rises in accordance with the towers in the park concept, which at that time was seen as innovative and beneficial by leaving more grassy areas between high-rises, Moses sometimes destroyed almost as many housing units as he built. From

7475-416: The city". However, post–World War II economic expansion , and notion of the automotive city , led to the creation of freeways , most notably in the form of the vast, federally funded Interstate Highway network . When the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers , Walter O'Malley , sought to replace the outdated and dilapidated Ebbets Field , he proposed building a new stadium near the Long Island Rail Road on

7590-414: The construction of Jones Beach State Park , the most-visited public beach in the United States, and was the primary architect of the New York State Parkway System . As head of the Triborough Bridge Authority , Moses had near-complete control over bridges and tunnels in New York City as well as the tolls collected from them; he built, among others, the Triborough Bridge , the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel , and

7705-414: The corner of Atlantic Avenue and Flatbush Avenue (next to the present-day Barclays Center , home of the NBA 's Brooklyn Nets ). O'Malley urged Moses to help him secure the property through eminent domain, but Moses refused, having already decided to build a parking garage on the site. Moreover, O'Malley's proposal — to have the city acquire the property for several times as much as he had originally said he

7820-431: The day. O'Malley vehemently opposed that plan, citing the team's Brooklyn identity. Moses refused to budge and, after the 1957 season, the Dodgers left for Los Angeles and the New York Giants left for San Francisco . Moses was later able to build the 55,000-seat multi-purpose Shea Stadium on the site. Construction ran from October 1961 to its delayed completion in April 1964. The stadium attracted an expansion franchise,

7935-439: The development of Jones Beach State Park . Displaying a strong command of law as well as matters of engineering , Moses became known for his skill in drafting legislation, and was called "the best bill drafter in Albany ". At a time when the public was accustomed to Tammany Hall corruption and incompetence, Moses was seen as a savior of government. Shortly after President Franklin D. Roosevelt's inauguration in 1933,

8050-408: The entire state, are listed below. The Agriculture and New York State Horse Breeding Development Fund serves equine interests in New York State and provides education concerning certain agricultural development. A 2004 audit of the fund found problems with its management. The Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY) provides construction, financing, and allied services that serve

8165-577: The establishment of each new authority, and to prevent the enactment of general laws pursuant to which a municipal corporation can itself create a corporation of the authority type ' ". While major public authorities can only be created by special legislation, many local development corporations have been created under the general Not-For-Profit Corporation Law. These LDCs function in much the same way as other public benefit corporations and public authorities, but do not need to be established by specific state legislation. Additionally, many public authorities have

8280-757: The estates of the rich, but told owners of the family farms who lost land that it was an unbiased decision based on "engineering considerations." The book also charged that Moses libeled officials who opposed him, attempting to have them removed from office by calling them communists during the Red Scare . The biography further notes that Moses fought against schools and other public needs in favor of his preference for parks. Moses's critics charge that he preferred automobiles over people. They point out that he displaced hundreds of thousands of residents in New York City and destroyed traditional neighborhoods by building multiple expressways through them. The projects contributed to

8395-460: The fair, Moses's reputation was now undermined by the same personal character traits that had worked in his favor in the past: disdain for the opinions of others and high-handed attempts to get his way in moments of conflict by turning to the press. The fact that the fair was not sanctioned by the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE), the worldwide body supervising such events, would be devastating to

8510-537: The first nine years of his life living at 83 Dwight Street in New Haven, two blocks from Yale University . In 1897, the Moses family moved to New York City, where they lived on East 46th Street off Fifth Avenue. Moses's father was a successful department store owner and real estate speculator in New Haven. In order for the family to move to New York City, he sold his real estate holdings and store, then retired. Moses's mother

8625-565: The free Shakespeare in the Park program received much negative publicity, and his effort to destroy a shaded playground in Central Park to make way for a parking lot for the expensive Tavern-on-the-Green restaurant earned him many enemies among the middle-class voters of the Upper West Side . The opposition reached a climax over the demolition of Pennsylvania Station , which many attributed to

8740-477: The general development and promotion of the Erie Canal Corridor as both a tourist attraction and a working waterway. The Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority consists of numerous subsidiaries, including: The Roswell Park Cancer Institute Corporation operates Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York. The United Nations Development Corporation was designed to assist

8855-424: The initial funding approved by the New York State legislature, knowing the legislature would eventually have to fund the full project to avoid appearing to have provided ineffective oversight ( fait accompli ). He was also characterized as using his political power to benefit cronies, including a case in which he secretly shifted the planned route of the Northern State Parkway large distances to avoid impinging on

8970-427: The late 1930s a municipal controversy raged over whether an additional vehicular link between Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan should be built as a bridge or a tunnel. Bridges can be wider and cheaper to build, but taller and longer bridges use more ramp space at landfall than tunnels do. A "Brooklyn Battery Bridge" would have decimated Battery Park and physically encroached on the financial district, and for this reason,

9085-463: The legislature. In City of Rye v. MTA , 24 N.Y.2d 627 (1969), the court of appeals explained that "The debates of the 1938 Convention indicate that the proliferation of public authorities after 1927 was the reason for the enactment of section 5 of article X.... Abbott Low Moffat, who supported this proposal, told the convention that its purpose was 'to require the Legislature to pass directly itself upon

9200-452: The need for one last great bridge project, a span crossing Long Island Sound from Rye to Oyster Bay . Rockefeller did not press for the project in the late 1960s through 1970, fearing public backlash among suburban Republicans would hinder his re-election prospects. A 1972 study found the bridge was fiscally prudent and could be environmentally manageable (according to the comparatively low environmental impact parameters of that period), but

9315-562: The new Long Island State Park Commission and the State Council of Parks. In 1924, Governor Smith appointed Moses chairman of the State Council of Parks and president of the Long Island State Park Commission. This centralization allowed Smith to run a government later used as a model for Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal federal government. Moses also received numerous commissions that he carried out efficiently, such as

9430-419: The new roads mostly conformed to the new vision, lacking the landscaping or the commercial traffic restrictions of the pre-war highways. He was the mover behind Shea Stadium and Lincoln Center , and contributed to the United Nations headquarters . On November 25, 1950, Governor Thomas E. Dewey appointed Moses along with former Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson and former Justice Charles C. Lockwood as

9545-527: The one in Colonial Park (now Jackie Robinson Park ), were placed in inconvenient locations. Another author wrote that of 255 playgrounds built in the 1930s under Moses's tenure, only two were in largely Black neighborhoods. Caro wrote that close associates of Moses had claimed they could keep African Americans from using the Thomas Jefferson Pool , in then-predominantly-white East Harlem , by making

9660-411: The pools should be kept a few degrees colder, allegedly because Moses believed African Americans did not like cold water. Although Moses had power over the construction of all New York City Housing Authority public housing projects and headed many other entities, it was his chairmanship of the Triborough Bridge Authority that gave him the most power. The Triborough Bridge (later officially renamed

9775-399: The power to create subsidiary authorities without additional legislative authorization. An example is the Empire State Development Corporation, which decided in 2007 to dissolve 13 subsidiaries and merge 25 others into a single holding company. ESDC still encompasses many subsidiary organizations. The 1938 Constitution "expressly empowered public authorities to contract debt independently of

9890-505: The proliferation of public authorities by specifying that they could be created only by special act of the state legislature. By 1956, 53 public authorities had been created. In 1990, the Commission on Government Integrity concluded that "At present, so far as Commission staff has been able to determine, no one has even an approximate count of how many of these organizations exist, where they are, much less an accounting of what they do." By 2004,

10005-656: The public can be traced, in the main, to ... Caro's magnificent biography". For example, Caro describes Moses's lack of sensitivity in the construction of the Cross-Bronx Expressway , and how he disfavored public transit . Much of Moses's reputation is attributable to Caro, whose book won both the Pulitzer Prize in Biography in 1975 and the Francis Parkman Prize (which is awarded by the Society of American Historians ), and

10120-476: The public good, to benefit specifically universities, health care facilities, and court facilities. The Empire State Development , also known as the Urban Development Corporation, maintains various programs and subsidiaries to encourage economic development in New York State. The Natural Heritage Trust supports natural resource conservation and historic preservation within New York State through

10235-451: The purported benefits of many of Moses's projects and further cast Moses as racist. In large part because of The Power Broker , Moses is today considered a controversial figure in the history of New York City as well as New York State. Moses was born in New Haven, Connecticut , on December 18, 1888, to parents of German Jewish descent, Isabella “Bella” (Cohen) and Emanuel Moses. He spent

10350-501: The reception and administration of donations and grants. It partners with several state agencies, including the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation , New York State Department of Environmental Conservation , and the New York State Department of State ; partners also include other public and private entities. The trust was established in 1968. In 2017, it had operating expenses of $ 1.54 million and

10465-645: The ruin of the South Bronx and the amusement parks of Coney Island , caused the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants Major League baseball teams to relocate to Los Angeles and San Francisco respectively, and precipitated the decline of public transport from disinvestment and neglect. His building of expressways also hindered the proposed expansion of the New York City Subway from

10580-423: The scale of works with the high cost and the slow speed of public works in the decades following his era. The peak of Moses's construction occurred during the economic duress of the Great Depression , and despite the era's woes, Moses's projects were completed in a timely fashion and have been reliable public works since then, which compares favorably to the delays that New York City officials have had in redeveloping

10695-455: The state had a moral obligation to repay the debts if canal revenues proved insufficient, and thus the certificates were deemed "an evasion if not a direct violation of the constitution". In 1921, the legislature chartered the first state public authority, the Port of New York Authority , as a new vehicle for financing public projects while insulating the state from long term debt obligations. In 1926,

10810-533: The state on a consistent basis. The Court of Appeals stated in Schulz v. State , 84 N.Y.2d 231 (1994) that, if "modern ingenuity, even gimmickry, have in fact stretched the words of the Constitution beyond the point of prudence, that plea for reform in State borrowing practices and policy is appropriately directed to the public arena". See also Wein v. State , 39 N.Y.2d 136 (1976); Wein v. Levitt , 42 N.Y.2d 300 (1977). Financing public projects through public authorities

10925-539: The state's debt and 80% of the state's infrastructure, leading some to refer to them as the "shadow government". Public benefit corporations and public authorities are controlled by boards of directors made up of political appointees. Board members have fixed terms and are, at least in theory, considered to be more independent of political influence than elected politicians and appointed agency heads. Board members and employees of public authorities usually are not considered to be state employees, but are rather employees of

11040-511: The state's most powerful authorities. Sections 50 and 51 of the Public Authorities Law currently require 11 authorities to receive approval from the PACB prior to entering into contracts for project-related financing. There are five members on the PACB board, all of whom are appointed by the governor and serve year-long terms. Public authorities are currently responsible for more than 90% of

11155-568: The success of the event. Moses refused to accept BIE requirements, including a restriction against charging ground rents to exhibitors, and the BIE in turn instructed its member nations not to participate. The United States had already staged the sanctioned Century 21 Exposition in Seattle in 1962. According to the rules of the organization, no one nation could host more than one fair in a decade. The major European democracies, as well as Canada, Australia, and

11270-627: The time he left office, he had built 658 playgrounds in New York City alone, plus 416 miles (669 km) of parkways and 13 bridges. The proportion of public benefit corporations is greater in New York than in any other U.S. state , however, making them the prime mode of infrastructure building and maintenance in New York and accounting for 90% of the state's debt. Moses's life was most famously characterized in Robert Caro 's 1974 award-winning biography The Power Broker . The book highlighted his practice of starting projects certain to cost more than

11385-603: The water too cold. Nonetheless, no other source has corroborated the claim that heaters in any particular pool were deactivated or not included in the pool's design. In addition, Moses took a favorable view of the British Empire and a racism much broader than solely towards the African-American community, speaking of Empire as useful in stemming the "rise of the lesser breeds without the law". Some scholars have attempted to rehabilitate Moses's reputation by contrasting

11500-421: The workings of state government. He created and led numerous semi-autonomous public authorities , through which he controlled millions of dollars in revenue and directly issued bonds to fund new ventures with little outside input or oversight. Moses's projects transformed the New York area and revolutionized the way cities in the U.S. were designed and built. As Long Island State Park Commissioner, Moses oversaw

11615-400: Was $ 34.82 billion. Additionally, the 47 state authorities carried a total of $ 160.4 billion in outstanding debt. Public benefit corporations in New York State have origins in mercantile capitalism . A shared tradition of English common law and Dutch law may explain their origins. The New York Court of Appeals provided a thorough history of state laws regarding public authorities in

11730-692: Was able to build some of New York's most important public works projects, including the Cross Bronx Expressway , the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway , and various bridges and parkways. The public authority model allowed Moses to bypass many of the legal restrictions placed on state agencies, allowing him to expedite development but also allowing him to hide project financing, contracting and operational information from public scrutiny. Because of this, he has been criticized for wasteful spending, patronage, and refusing to consider public opposition to his projects. The 1938 constitutional amendments attempted to limit

11845-519: Was active in the settlement movement , with her own love of building. Robert Moses and his brother Paul attended several schools for their elementary and secondary education , the Dwight School and the Mohegan Lake School , a military academy near Peekskill . After graduating from Yale College (B.A., 1909) and Wadham College , Oxford (B.A., Jurisprudence, 1911; M.A., 1913), and earning

11960-539: Was added to the state constitution, prohibiting the state from contracting long term debt without approval by the voters. As early as 1851, the legislature began to search for ways to evade the constitutional debt limit in order to finance public works projects. Canal certificates, which would be repaid through canal revenues, and which by their terms were not state obligations, were nevertheless held to be unconstitutional in Newell v. People , 7 N.Y. 9 (1852). The court held that

12075-483: Was also given powers over public housing that had eluded him under LaGuardia. When O'Dwyer was forced to resign in disgrace and was succeeded by Vincent R. Impellitteri , Moses was able to assume even greater behind-the-scenes control over infrastructure projects. One of Moses's first steps after Impellitteri took office was halting the creation of a citywide Comprehensive Zoning Plan underway since 1938 that would have curtailed his nearly unlimited power to build within

12190-424: Was an American urban planner and public official who worked in the New York metropolitan area during the early to mid-20th century. Moses is regarded as one of the most powerful and influential people in the history of New York City and New York State . The grand scale of his infrastructure projects and his philosophy of urban development influenced a generation of engineers, architects, and urban planners across

12305-519: Was done to make it more difficult for future legislatures to allow access for commercial vehicles. Woolgar and Cooper refer to the claim about bridges as an "urban legend". Moses vocally opposed allowing Black war veterans to move into Stuyvesant Town , a Manhattan residential development complex created to house World War II veterans. In response to the biography, Moses defended his forced displacement of poor and minority communities as an inevitable part of urban revitalization: "I raise my stein to

12420-493: Was in apparent retaliation, based on specious claims that the proposed tunnel would undermine Castle Clinton's foundation. He also attempted to raze Castle Clinton itself, the historic fort surviving only after being transferred to the federal government. Moses now had no other option for a trans-river crossing than to build a tunnel. He commissioned the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel (now officially the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel ),

12535-644: Was named one of the 100 greatest non-fiction books of the twentieth century by the Modern Library . Upon its publication, Moses denounced the biography in a 23-page statement, to which Caro replied to defend his work's integrity. Caro's depiction of Moses's life gives him full credit for his early achievements, showing, for example, how he conceived and created Jones Beach and the New York State Park system, but also shows how Moses's desire for power came to be more important to him than his earlier dreams. Moses

12650-794: Was of Jewish origin and raised in a secularist manner inspired by the Ethical Culture movement of the late 19th century. He was a convert to Christianity and was interred in a crypt in an outdoor community mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City following services at St. Peter's by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Bay Shore, New York . Various locations and roadways in New York State bear Moses's name. These include two state parks, Robert Moses State Park – Thousand Islands in Massena, New York and Robert Moses State Park – Long Island ,

12765-461: Was said to have blocked Paul, an engineer, from being hired for any public service jobs including major infrastructure projects that Moses himself had spearheaded. Paul, whom Caro interviewed shortly before the former's death, claimed Robert had exerted undue influence on their mother to change her will in Robert's favor shortly before her death. Caro notes that Paul was on bad terms with their mother over

12880-497: Was that of Parks Commissioner of New York City, a role he served from January 18, 1934, to May 23, 1960. The many offices and professional titles that Moses held gave him unusually broad power to shape urban development in the New York metropolitan region. These include, according to the New York Preservation Archive Project: During the 1920s, Moses sparred with Franklin D. Roosevelt , then head of

12995-429: Was the first fully divided limited access highway in the world. Moses was a highly influential figure in the initiation of many of the reforms that restructured New York state's government during the 1920s. A 'Reconstruction Commission' headed by Moses produced a highly influential report that provided recommendations that would largely be adopted, including the consolidation of 187 existing agencies under 18 departments,

13110-461: Was unconstitutional to impair existing contractual obligations, as the bondholders had the right of approval over such actions. The largest holder of TBTA bonds, and thus agent for all the others, was the Chase Manhattan Bank , headed then by David Rockefeller , the governor's brother. No suit was filed. Moses could have directed TBTA to go to court against the action, but having been promised

13225-506: Was willing to pay — was rejected by both pro- and anti-Moses officials, newspapers, and the public, as an unacceptable government subsidy of a private business enterprise. Moses envisioned New York's newest stadium being built in Queens' Flushing Meadows on the former (and as it turned out, future) site of the World's Fair , where it would eventually host all three of the city's major league teams of

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