By MOLLY CHARBONEAU

The $39.3 billion city budget outlined by Mayor Giuliani Jan. 25 proposed some additional funds for programs that employ DC 37 members, but it also included privatization plans, cuts in full-time jobs and other reductions that are cause for concern.

“Positives in the mayor’s proposal included plans to address the housing crisis, continuation of the School Construction Authority where many of our members work, and hiring more School Crossing Guards,” said Deputy Administrator Eliot Seide. “However, we are concerned about a proposal to privatize the Off-Track Betting Corp. and plans to streamline contracting procedures, which could increase privatization.”

Mr. Seide said the union was pleased that City Council Speaker Peter F. Vallone supported an affordable housing program and advocated civilianizing 600 police positions—a positive development for Clerical-Administrative Local 1549 and other locals.

DC 37’s Research and Negotiations Department identified key areas of concern for the union.

The mayor again proposed to reduce city funding for the library systems and cultural institutions — cutbacks the union will fight again this year.

Perhaps more ominous is a plan to replace full-time positions with seasonal workers in the Parks and Recreation and the Transportation departments.

In the Dept. of Transportation, the mayor plans to use seasonal positions to replace 27 vacant highway jobs. In Parks, the mayor wants to eliminate 34 full-time positions through attrition and fill the spots with seasonal workers. These moves would continue to cut the civilian work force, which in mayoral agencies has fallen by more than 15,800 positions since December 1993. Along with an increase in part-time jobs and the use of welfare recipients, the proposed job cuts would further erode the number of full-time workers in city agencies (see box).

The proposed budget is balanced with $350 million in federal and state funds, which are unlikely to materialize. This means the city would have to raise some or all of the money from tax revenues or other areas that could affect members’ jobs — including the current proposal to sell OTB for $250 million.

And despite years of economic prosperity, the mayor wants to move ahead with tax reductions that would create huge future budget gaps — more than $2 billion a year — leaving less revenue for the vital public services that DC 37 members provide.

“The mayor’s plan does not address some of our more crucial issues, such as civilianization, added funding for the Health and Hospitals Corp., and the need for more full-time positions in the mayoral agencies,” said Deputy Administrator Dennis Sullivan. “We will continue to fight for these items during the budget adoption process.”

City Council hearings on the preliminary budget will take place in March. After the mayor releases the Executive Budget in April, the City Council will hold additional hearings in May, make changes to the budget during June and vote to approve the final city budget sometime before the July 1 start of the next fiscal year.