In the last four years, the West Yorkshire Playhouse has lost a third of its local authority subsidy and is set to lose more.
Unable to secure tenants or financing for his planned towers, Mr. Silverstein, with the support of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the State Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, demanded that the authority provide subsidies.
Last week, Gov. George Pataki and Gov. Christine Todd Whitman reached an important agreement to end a fight over distribution of the authority's subsidies and projects.
When the authorities lifted subsidies on various staples last June, it took them days, and helicopter gunships, to put down the rioting that followed.
There is a simple reason for this: the state's withdrawal from housing, both in terms of direct provision through local authorities and subsidy to housing associations, and in terms of obliging private builders to maintain a steady flow of new developments regardless of the economic climate, and using planning regulations to ensure they provide a proportion of affordable homes on new developments.
Last year, the authority ended various subsidies, including one that farmers previously received from the government for growing Rhodes grass, which is used as animal feed.
But of the individual authorities with annual subsidies of more than $1 million, 11 of the 24 biggest percentage losers are from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Khamenei has made similar remarks in a number of speeches, prompting authorities to slash subsidies for vasectomies and curb the government budget for family planning programmes.
Focusing on providing support for the elderly, the WRVS suffered a knock this year when local authorities removed all subsidies for its £3.6m "meals on wheels" programme and cut grants for many of its community projects.
In Denmark, the tax level is relatively high compared to other countries, and authorities provide substantial subsidies for people outside the labour market, notably pensioners.
