Public Employee Press

Political Action 2005
Bloomberg issues “election year” budget

During the next several weeks, DC 37 will press for budget restorations as the City Council holds hearings on Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s $48 billion spending plan for next year.

On Jan. 27, Bloomberg released an election-year budget that manages to close a $3 billion deficit without raising taxes or resorting to layoffs.

The plan gives homeowners another $400 rebate while keeping the 18.5 percent property tax hike that helped close a huge shortfall in 2002.

While the proposed budget doesn’t call for layoffs, the plan raises serious concerns for the union.
“We will work with the City Council and the mayor to restore cuts to agencies vital to New Yorkers where our members work,” said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts.

One of the union’s worries is the mayor’s renewed effort to cut some $200 million from libraries and other cultural institutions. Last year, the City Council voted to restore those funds.

The budget also calls for postponing $1.3 billion from the city’s $13 billion, five-year school construction plan.

The mayor also seeks $325 million in pension and health-care savings from city employees. Any changes in those benefits would require negotiations with municipal unions.

Possible state and federal cuts could undermine Bloomberg’s goal of balancing the budget for fiscal year 2006, which begins July 1. Gov. George E. Pataki’s proposed budget would provide far less aid than the city plan anticipates. The state budget would also hit the Health and Hospitals Corp. with a $275 million shortfall in Medicaid funding.

“We agree with the mayor that the governor’s Medicaid cuts will be extremely harmful to our public hospitals, and we will fight to restore those cuts,” Ms. Roberts said.

President George Bush’s federal budget plan would slam the city with deep cuts in law enforcement, homeland security and community development funds — hurting programs for child care, elder services, the poor and immigrants.