Cost-sharing revenue-bond financing made mass grade-crossing elimination possible

Evidence

Moses recommended that the state and the railroads split the cost and that the state finance its share by selling revenue bonds authorized by a constitutional amendment. Smith accepted the recommendation—and fought for it, campaigning for the amendment across the state. With the press denouncing Republican opposition to such unprecedented governmental expenditure and interference with private enterprise, the 1924 Legislature was forced to pass the amendment, the 1925 Legislature to repass it, and in 1926 the voters ratified it by a margin of more than a million votes. While the amendment was still being debated, Smith asked Moses to see if anything could be done to speed up grade-crossing eliminations already authorized. Moses devised a form that could be sent to Highway Division regional engineers showing the steps in each elimination and the suggested target dates for completion of each step. And these forms were not allowed to yellow in stacks in the corner of some office. Smith ordered Highway Superintendent Greene to send them out to the engineers—and to see that they used them. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 618

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Grade-crossing elimination foundered on cost, railroad power, and divided agency responsibility — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 617

Broader Connections

• Grade-crossing elimination foundered on cost, railroad power, and divided agency responsibility #contradicts (0.90) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 617