Public Employee Press

Budget office feeds attacks on city workers

As the city addresses the huge gaps in its fiscal plans, the so-called Independent Budget Office has publicized suggestions for cuts that would hit city workers and retirees with a $1 billion knockout punch.

Among the IBO’s 70 proposals for savings and new revenue, nearly 30 would roll back decades of gains by municipal unions.

The proposals in the IBO’s February “Budget Options for New York City” include increasing the workweek to 40 hours (saving $128.7 million), introducing a new pension plan for future employees without guaranteed benefits ($12 million), making city workers and retirees pay 10 percent of health insurance costs ($320 million) and slashing half of the city’s payment of Medicare Part B costs for retirees ($93.5 million).

The IBO report came about a month after the Citizens Budget Commission claimed that average city employees earn $106,000 a year and called for deep cuts in medical, pension and other benefits. The IBO’s options for cuts to the workforce would add up to nearly $1 billion.
“Once again, public employees and retirees are being told to shoulder the city’s budget problems, which were largely caused by irresponsible bankers and brokers,” DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts said.

Roberts: Cut contracting
“The city needs to consider alternative proposals, such as our suggestion to save millions by cutting the waste in its use of consultants and contractors,” she said.

To its credit, the IBO also examines $4.5 billion in revenue enhancements, such as restoring the commuter tax ($1.4 billion), increasing taxes on wealthy residents ($455 million) and eliminating loopholes in corporation taxes ($325 million).

Unlike the pro-business CBC, the IBO triesto be objective by presenting pro and con arguments for each of its proposals. But reports like the IBO’s smorgasbord of budget choices inevitably lead to media attacks on public employees.

In articles on the IBO report, The New York Times and the New York Post highlighted the labor cuts. The Post used the IBO’s information to call city contributions to pensions at 28 cultural institutions “part of a little-known deal struck 47 years ago,” giving the impression that the practice reflects a sinister conspiracy between the union and the city. In fact, the city’s obligation to make these payments is spelled out clearly in budget documents.

DC 37 Retirees President Stuart Leibowitz blasted the suggestion to slash the city’s contribution to Medicare Part B costs, taking $93.5 million out of the retirees’ pockets. “It is very easy for analysts in their ivory tower at the IBO to make suggestions that would be catastrophic for working people with modest pay and retirees with fixed incomes of about $15,000,” Leibowitz said.

—Gregory N. Heires