PEP, April 2010: DC 37 to City Council: Put New Yorkers First

At DC 37’s annual City Council breakfast on Feb. 24, union leaders and Council members and their representatives gathered to discuss ways to protect services and jobs while coping with looming budgetary challenges.

“We have a big challenge ahead to see that limited resources are spent wisely. It’s clear to all of us that contracting out really bled this city when we could least afford it,” said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts. “We have to see that New Yorkers are taken care of and have jobs. We are counting on the City Council to examine all outside contracts and see how we can improve education and protect healthcare and libraries without laying off workers.”

As the mayor and governor prepare to slash vital services to close their multi-billion-dollar budget gaps, DC 37 officers and local leaders urged the lawmakers to look for opportunities to increase revenues and to consider whether New York can continue to waste $9 billion a year on outside contractors.

Fund public services

While the mayor’s budget plan would cut agency funding and public services and lay off workers, it makes no effort to cut spending on outside contractors and consultants who duplicate work DC 37 members do more efficiently at lower cost.

“We are facing cuts of $1 billion from the Health and Hospitals Corporation, $500 million from the Education Department and $340 million in state aid to the city. The billions of federal stimulus dollars that helped during 2009 may not be available in the next fiscal year,” Political Director Wanda Williams told the City Council members. “We can’t cut our way out of these serious troubles.”

“We all will feel the brunt of the budget cuts,” Williams said. DC 37 leaders pointed to cuts in daycare and the threat to eliminate student Metro cards as disasters for thousands of union parents. Cuts to federal Medicaid and Disproportionate Share in Hospitals funding would hit union members at HHC.

“We are pressing for real healthcare reform, because although our members have health care coverage thanks to their union, too many in our communities do not,” Williams said. “The city needs to increase the Nurses and health care workers in school-based clinics, which provide primary health care for many of the city’s 1.1 million public school children.”

Union leaders said that with unemployment fueling a record need for Food Stamps, the city must increase staffing at its Food Stamp centers. They urged City Council members to seek more federal and state funding and pointed to ways to increase city revenue: hiring more Assessors to recoup billions of dollars in unpaid hotel and property taxes; reinstating part of the stock transfer tax; enforcing civilianization at the Police Dept. and other agencies, and reinstating a “millionaires’ tax” on incomes over $250,000 a year.

City Council Finance Committee Chair Dominic Recchia said Council members would work with DC37 to save student passes and protect funding for daycare, hospitals, libraries and other services.

“If there is no money for home, no money to fund raises for city employees or public services, then there should be no money for contracting out!” Roberts said.