Posted on 08/07/2011 11:38:31 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Hugh L. Carey, the governor who helped rescue New York from the brink of financial collapse in the 1970s and tamed a culture of ever-growing spending, died Sunday at his summer home on Shelter Island. He was 92.
...
As the 51st governor of New York from 1975 through 1982, Mr. Carey led a small group of public servants who vanquished the fiscal crisis that threatened New York City and the state — the direst emergency a governor had faced since the Depression — by taking on powers over the city’s finances that no governor had wielded before and none has wielded since. A liberal Democrat, Mr. Carey reversed the upward spiral of borrowing, spending and entitlement under one of his predecessors, Nelson A. Rockefeller, a Republican who had presided in an era of limitless government promise.
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In four terms as governor, Mr. Rockefeller had built a legacy of state universities and highways but also of much higher taxes and enormous debt. The pattern was repeated at the local level; under Mayor John V. Lindsay, a Republican turned Democrat, New York City had to borrow money for day-to-day operations. The 1974-75 recession opened yawning deficits and exposed years of unsound practices.
On Jan. 1, 1975, Mr. Carey declared in his inaugural address, “This government will begin today the painful, difficult, imperative process of learning to live within its means.”
He immediately faced a cascade of emergencies, as various state authorities, New York City, Yonkers, several school districts and ultimately the state itself flirted with collapse.
New York City lay at the core of the crisis. Mr. Lindsay’s successor as mayor, Abraham D. Beame, was taking drastic action, cutting tens of thousands of jobs, but a solution lay beyond the city’s grasp.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
He was the last Democrat I voted for. He was a good governor and a better person. RIP “Portus.”
RIP.
Alex Jones mentioned this. He noted how strange it was no cause of death mentioned.
Don’t believe everything you read- especially in the Times. Carey was a total load, a product of the old Democrat machine in New York. He was pro-life until he needed to be pro-abortion to run as a Dem. When his terms were over he miraculously found Jesus again and became pro-life.
“...under Mayor John V. Lindsay, a Republican turned Democrat...”
Now, that’s wrong, isn’t it? I was sure he BECAME a Republican - one of our beloved RINO’s. Blech!
May Hugh Carey rest in peace.
He was a wonderful husband and father, a great friend, and all around good guy. And a fine Governor.
He was an outsider, running against the NY political machine. His policies of fiscal restraint & responsibility seem visionary by today’s standards.
“Hugh Carey, Who Led Fiscal Rescue of New York City, Is Dead at 92”
That NY Times headline is pure bull spit. Hugh Carey did beans for NY.
Rest in Peace Mr. Carey.
My thoughts and prayers are with your family, particularly your daughters who I knew in High School.
People who only read the headlines come to stupid conclusions. Read the entire article. Hugh Carey was a fine human being and a Governor who turned NY around after 4 terms of RINO Rockefellor and his megamoniacal building & spending that bankrupted the state.
He was a devoted husband and father of twelve. We won’t see his kind again.
Let the man rest in peace. Save your venom for those who deserve it.
Thank you.
I was 14 and a freshman in HS when he was elected. the family were members of the parish my HS was affiliated with and one daughter was a Senior and I think 2 others were also in the HS, not sure how many were still in the grammar school. The morning after election day we all attended Mass with the entire Carey clan.
I heard Carey speak at the March for Life many years ago. I hope his repudiation of his years as a pro-abort were sincere.
Carry said he regretted was always personally pro-life. He stated many times his remorse for his pro choice vote.
He is no Mario Cuomo, or his evil spawn, Andrew.
I believe Hugh Carey was sincere. He was a fine and decent man.
Thanks for sharing your stories.
Hugh Carey was a friend of my parents, and when his wife was alive, they and their 12 children and my small family shared many good times on Shelter Island.
He was devastated by his wife’s death at such a young age, and by the deaths of two sons killed in a car crash on Shelter Island.
He became Governor after her death, and raised 10 children as a single parent.
We may not agree with people on every issue, but as a human being, Hugh Carey was a prince of a man.
After his wife died didn’t he marry a rather colorful woman who was less than honest about some former husbands? It caused quite a scandal because he was a Roman Catholic.
Lucky you, growing up or at least spending summers on Shelter Island! There used to be an ice cream shop in Dering Harbor. I wonder if it’s still there.
Who knows? I hope so too. The quality of one’s contrition is known only to God and the sinner.
Your boy along with Mario Cuomo and George Pataki were all instrumental in bringing NY to where it is today, practically bankrupt, full of regulation, people leaving because of high taxes. Mr. Carey, divorced his wife and mother of his children. Go ahead and parrot the NY Slimes. You are entitled to your opinion as I am entitled to mine
The above poste should be corrected.GOV. CAREY did not divorce his first wife as she had passed away. A controversy developed after he married a woman who had been divorced previously.
Some people are saying he was a “good governor”. What do you think?
I read that he regretted supporting public funded abortions.
Depends on your definition of “good.” Rockefeller left a horrendous mess and Malcolm Wilson scarcely had the time to address it before then-Congressman Carey rode the Watergate wave to the Governorship. For being a big-state Governor, I found him to be so low-key that I never really formed a definitive opinion of him (to the point of being viscerally opposed or in favor). Barone himself pointed out that his “reclusiveness” was a big problem for him (he had a close race in 1978 against ex-Assembly Speaker Perry Duryea that was much closer than his ‘74 race against Gov. Wilson).
Someone else pointed out that he was apparently a hypocrite on the abortion issue (that he had been pro-life, “sold out” for the purpose of becoming Governor, and then going back to pro-life after he was out of office when it didn’t matter anymore all the while using the “personally opposed” schtick so many leftists like to claim that is utterly worthless). Other than that, can’t say much more about him.
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