Walt Stecher

Budget Director

Budget cuts, cutbacks in city services, and layoffs of city employees are everyday crises in the life of a budget director in a large metropolitan city. Given the present economic conditions in America, the work of a budget director can be difficult indeed. When large cities are in fiscal crisis, the heat often falls on the mayor and the budget director.

It's a job, it would seem, that a wise person would want to avoid.

Such is not the case, however, with Walt Stecher, who claims to love his job as budget director for the city of Detroit.

Stecher, a native New Yorker, came to Detroit in 1956, when he began working for the city. He was appointed to his present position under the new city charter by Mayor Young.

With the new charter, the budget department became autonomous and directly responsible to the Mayor, an arrangement Stecher endorses.

Despite dismal predictions for the city's economic future, Stecher is optimistic. He feels the Renaissance Center could signal bigger things for the city- it could bring in the hotel business, more banks, and more housing developments.

Stecher feels that if the cities are to survive the present financial crisis, they must have financial help from the federal government. One option the federal government is considering is the "counter-cyclical" system: the higher the city's unemployment rate, the more money available from the government.

-Albert Nickerson