Big Apple History . Business and Politics . Reducing the City's Payroll


	Reducing expenses required many hours of work.

La Guardia wanted to do more than purge the city of corruption. He committed himself to rebuilding housing and public health facilities, and he was determined to boost the general happiness of the people of New York. However, La Guardia came to office without the means to make good on his promises.

Bankers had already forced Walker to stop building public works. The abandoned Triborough Bridge was a powerful symbol of the city government at a standstill. Work on the Triborough had been started before the city entered a period of severe economic trauma and was abandoned in an early phase of construction.

With La Guardia at the helm, he set about trying to manage New York's staggering debts. The bankers who held the city's loans told La Guardia that they would cut his government off without a penny and that they would demand immediate repayment of funds borrowed unless La Guardia made his first priority the cutting back on public services and the paying back of banks. He committed himself to the path they laid before him, reluctantly carrying out a massive layoff of city workers.