By JANE LaTOUR

Local leaders, each expert in their own area of the city budget, and Lillian Roberts fight cuts at City Council hearings.

In testimony before the City Council, DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts and numerous local leaders charged the mayor with pressing for a self-destructive solution to the looming deficit. Balancing the city’s budget by chopping the services that keep the city working is a no-win solution, they said in late-March hearings.

Ms. Roberts received strong support from Contracts Committee Chair Robert Jackson when she pointed to the wasteful effects of contracting out, which the union had detailed in its three White Papers.

The City Council responded to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s preliminary budget with an Alternative Financial Plan that included more than $150 million worth of the White Papers’ savings proposals. The new budget must be adopted by July 1, and the debate is expected to heat up in May and June.

Ms. Roberts also addressed the Council’s Education Committee with Veronica Montgomery-Costa, president of Dept. of Education Employees Local 372 and of DC 37. Ms. Costa focused on the essential support services provided by school employees in Local 372 — who are also city residents, taxpayers, and parents who entrust their children to the school system. Some, like the School Aides who monitor hallways and cafeterias, free up the teachers for classroom duties. Others, such as the Paraprofessionals who collect attendance data, are essential for securing state funding, the major component of school operating budgets.

“Budget cuts kill people”
Uniformed EMS Officers Local 3621 President Donald Rothschild, Jr. offered a blunt assessment of the city’s financial crisis. “As an emergency health care provider, I loathe having to talk about budgets. But in today’s reality, we must, because budget cuts kill people. It is that simple.”

Ralph Palladino, 3rd vice president of Clerical-Administrative Employees Local 1549, warned the Health Committee that proposed cuts in the Medicaid system would have tragic health and budgetary effects. “The result will be sicker patients who will be forced to use emergency rooms and become in-patients,” Palladino said. “We will see a rise in the number of uninsured patients — costing HHC and the city hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Juan Fernandez, president of Amalgamated Professional Employees Local 154, said the cost of the “top-heavy administration” in the merged Health Dept. and the Dept. of Mental Health “is being passed along to the communities as the quality of outreach work is decreasing.”

Judith Arroyo, vice-president of Public Health Nurses and Epidemiologists Local 436, blasted “the cascading effects of major federal, state and local budget cuts.” She warned, “Every dollar cut from prevention will cost $4 in direct care in the future.”

Municipal Hospital Employees Local 420 Executive Vice-President Antonia Marte told the Health Committee that nearly 2 million New Yorkers have no health insurance. “HHC is their safety net, but HHC is under tremendous financial pressure,” she said. “Now, when the public health system must be prepared for any emergency, is not the time to make cuts in that system.”

Libraries and museums are also among the city’s essential services. Consider that “the public libraries are often a child’s first introduction to the world of literacy and learning,” as John Socha, Queens Library Guild Local 1321 president, pointed out to City Council members. Testifying with him were Brooklyn Library Guild Local 1482 President Eileen Muller, New York Public Library Guild Local 1930 President Ray Markey, and Metropolitan Museum of Art Local 1503 President Robert Schirmer.

Ms. Muller pointed out in her testimony that “65% of young people from 2-17 use the Internet, and usage has increased 210% in minority areas,” where many children can only gain access to the Internet at the library.

Mr. Schirmer pointed out that the Metropolitan Museum is the top tourist destination in New York City, “drawing more visitors than all other major art museums combined.”

This premier cultural institution depends on the vital services provided by his members — the maintenance, security and technical workers who make the museum function. Taken as a whole, their testimony showed clearly that severe budget cuts and layoffs would have a devastating impact on the quality of life for all New Yorkers — in every sphere.

 

*Download Acrobat Reader to view and print PDF files.