Kenneth Lipper Quotes
A behemoth budget does not mean there is much discretion in allocating it.
Kenneth Lipper, New York City Deputy Mayor (Democrat), New York Times Magazine, December 31, 1989
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This quotation is attributed to the Senator by hundreds of sources, many very relaiable. This indicates to us that it was a line he used on several occasions. However the Dirksen Center staff has not been able to find the quotation amongst his writings and his radio and television appearances that they have transcripts for.
Both the House and the Senate, as they got larger, developed an Appropriations Committee. When the committee assessed a departmental appropriation, they had also the responsibility for all the other departmental budgets. However, many of the members of the Appropriations Committee tended to favor the interests of their particular constituency or the special interests to which they were beholden. Other members had little or no influence. So there was immense pressure during Reconstruction to ‘share’ the appropriations ‘plum’ by creating appropriations subcommittees. However, each particular subcommittee loses the perspective of and interest in the budget as a whole. The process has led to budget imbalance pressure ever since. But Randall, the Speaker of the House warned about exactly what would happen. He had earlier served as Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, and he was exactly right.
Kenneth Lipper is a prominent figure in the arts, the world of finance, and government. He served as New York City's Deputy Mayor under Mayor Ed Koch. Lipper was a general partner at Lehman Brothers and Salomon Brothers. He was Adjunct Professor at Columbia School of International Affairs in the field of international economics. Lipper serves as a director of corporations and government agencies. He is Chairman of Lipper & Co, an investment bank and investment management company, and also serves as Chairman of the Board of Lippmann Enterprises LLC, a cosmetics company. In November 2010, after winning a civil class action, Lipper was awarded more than $15 million in indemnification, because as a New York State Supreme Court judge's findings noted, "none of the investigations and claims asserted against [Lipper] had resulted in a finding that he had engaged in 'negligence, malfeasance or a violation of applicable law.'" In 2013, Governor Andrew Cuomo nominated, and the New York State Senate confirmed, Lipper as a member of the Board of Commissioners of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the Port Authority's governing body. Lipper won an Academy Award in 1998 for producing the best feature-length documentary. He is author of the novels Wall Street and City Hall and co-wrote the original screenplay for the feature film "City Hall." Lipper produced "City Hall", "The Winter Guest" and "The Last Days" and worked as chief technical adviser of "Wall Street." He is the co-founder and co-publisher of Lipper Viking Penguin, a biography series.
