Public Employee Press

DC 37 to City Council:
How to raise $500 million

By ALFREDO ALVARADO

While Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg aims to close the 2011 budget gap on the backs of city workers, DC 37 has been busy researching solutions that would cut costs, raise over $530 million in revenue for the city, and avert layoffs and service cuts.

The union explained the proposals Dec. 8 at a legislative breakfast for members of the City Council. After welcoming remarks by DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts and Political Action Director Wanda Williams and greetings from Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Assistant Associate Director Henry Garrido detailed the union recommendations for the dozen City Council members and their aides who participated. (More on proposals, pages 8-9.)

Garrido pointed to the rental income the city is failing to collect from more than half of the 7,000 billboards in the city and charged that the city's inadequate collection process was giving away $22 million in potential revenue.

He said the city could bring in another $27 million by collecting taxes from all cell phone antennas and an additional $173 million by canceling tax exemptions for commercial and residential property that previously belonged to nonprofits and religious institutions.

The union has also recommended a 15 percent voluntary vendor rate reduction program for personnel and technical services contracts, which could generate over $316 million. Los Angeles and Chicago have already had great success with this strategy.

Council needs to step up

"If the mayor would implement these solutions, we could save the targeted jobs," said Garrido. He also called on the city to look at labor as a potential partner in solving budget problems. De Blasio acknowledged the positive role of unions in seeking solutions to the budget crisis. "It is the unions that are coming up with alternatives that work," he said.

Roberts encouraged the Council members to fight for their constituents by pressing the city to bring in the neglected revenue instead of cutting services and jobs. "You have to stand up for the people who put you in office," she admonished.

City Council member Darlene Mealy, who represents the 41st District in Brooklyn, was impressed with the union's revenue-generating ideas. "These are excellent proposals," she said after the meeting. "We have to cut back on the contracting out, which is just another way of union-busting."