Public Employee Press

Battle of the Budget
Layoffs and attrition threaten 1,600 jobs

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is again planning to balance the city's budget on the backs of hardworking public employees and community residents in need of public services. His $68.7 billion preliminary budget for fiscal year 2013, which begins July 1, calls for drastic cuts to the Administration for Children's Services, the public libraries, the Dept. of Parks and Recreation and cultural institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Staten Island Zoo.

Altogether, the mayor aims to wipe out 1,600 positions through layoffs and attrition, with ACS targeted to lose up to 105 Child Protective positions and 26 Child Welfare staffers, and the Queens Public Library planning to lay off 150 workers. The proposed budget would also close 20 firehouses and chop funding for after-school programs and the city-subsidized child care positions, serious blows to public safety and working parents.

"This budget is bad news for our dedicated and hardworking public employees and for all New Yorkers," said DC 37 Research and Negotiations Director Evelyn Seinfeld March 5, as she presented DC 37's position on the budget to the City Council Finance Committee. "It reflects the wrong priorities because it imposes pain on ordinary New Yorkers through cuts in vital services. It's as simple as that."

The budget seeks no additional taxes on the wealthiest 1 percent.

At numerous City Council committee hearings in March and April, leaders of many DC 37 locals (shown on these pages) urged the council to restore the mayor's proposed funding cuts.

Seinfeld also recommended that the city save a significant amount of revenue by using more civilian employees at the police, fire, corrections and sanitation departments, where high-paid uniformed employees often perform civilian duties.

"By making greater use of civilian employees in jobs that are often filled by members of the uniformed forces, the city will actually save money and the public will be better served," Seinfeld explained.

She also slammed the city's continued wasteful spending on contracts with consultants and private companies and pointed out that the Bloomberg administration was trying to "lock in" contracts extending even beyond the term of the next mayor. "This is outrageous and it must stop," she said. As PEP went to press, it appeared that Comptroller John Liu might succeed in blocking the protracted deals.

—Alfredo Alvarado