Public Employee Press

New state budget wallops NYC

BY GREGORY N. HEIRES

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's austerity budget leaves New York City with a gap of nearly $600 million in the Bloomberg administration's proposed spending plan for fiscal year 2012, which begins July 1.

"This is a bad news budget," DC 37 Lillian Roberts said. "It shortchanges our public schools, public hospitals and colleges. And it anticipates as many as 9,500 layoffs if the governor doesn't get $450 million in concessions from the unions."

The state Legislature approved Cuomo's $132.5 budget for fiscal year 2011-12, which began April 1. The plan chops spending by $3.6 billion, including a $170 million cut to the state court system, which appears likely to cause layoffs of members of Court, County and Probation Employees Local 1070.

"We are very concerned about the impact of the cuts on our members and their families, as well as the chaos they could cause in the courts," Local 1070 President Cliff Koppelman said. "We will protect members' rights and press the court system to examine every possible alternative before firing employees."
Cuomo's budget slashes Medicaid by $2.85 billion, aid to public schools by $271 million and aid to the City University system by $70.1 million.

The cuts will cost the Health and Hospitals Corp. $100 million to $200 million and could increase the number of jobs endangered by HHC's restructuring plan. Mayor Bloomberg contends that the real loss to city schools is more than $1 billion because the assistance doesn't include additional funds that Albany committed to New York City before Cuomo became governor.

Except for $53 million in educational aid, the state budget failed to fill a $600 million shortfall in assistance to the city. At issue is whether the Bloomberg administration will use the funding loss to justify moving ahead with its November plan to eliminate 5,400 teaching positions and lay off 1,900 other workers by June 30, 2012.

The budget also failed to extend the $5 billion-a-year "millionaires' tax" on high-income taxpayers, which Cuomo opposed.