Finance: Borrowing at the Ballot Box

Willing as they are to go into debt as consumers, as voters Americans tend to pinch pennies. Just a year ago, in an atmosphere of general uneasiness over inflation and rising interest rates, they voted down fully half of the $2.3 billion in proposed public-bond issues that were on the ballot across the nation. Not this year. Facing a staggering $3.5 billion in bond proposals at the polls last week—second highest total in U.S. history—voters enthusiastically turned thumbs up.

In all, an overwhelming 90% of the bonds were approved. New York's record $2.5 billion transportation program breezed through with a strong 3-to-2 margin (see THE NATION). Elsewhere, voters were equally generous, even with proposals that had been turned down before. In San Francisco, where a $95.5 million airport-improvement died at the polls last year, voters went for a similar project that will cost $98 million this time around.

Why the change of electoral heart? One powerful reason was offered by New York's Governor Nelson Rockefeller, who had argued for his big bond issue on grounds that the alternative could be a "major tax increase." Many voters, already fretting over the prospect of rising federal taxes, trekked to the nation's polls with the thought that taking on a public debt with bonds would at least put off local tax increases.