White Paper IV (PDF format)*

$2 billion uncollected as city lays off union workers who bring in the bucks

DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts hammered the Bloomberg administration again May 15 with a White Paper showing that instead of cutting expenses, layoffs scheduled for the Finance Dept. would reduce municipal revenues and impair the city’s ability to bring in more than $3 billion in underassessed and uncollected taxes.

Standing on the steps of City Hall, accompanied by DC 37 President Veronica Montgomery-Costa, Associate Director Oliver Gray and numerous local presidents and members of the City Council, Ms. Roberts released the fourth of the DC 37 White Papers. The proposals point the way to billions of dollars in cost savings and revenue enhancements for the fiscally strapped city.

Cost-saving productivity proposals from the Municipal Labor Committee fell on uncaring ears in the mayor’s office, and the next day, the layoff axe fell on 2,000 municipal city workers, including 1,000 members of DC 37. “While the mayor may not be listening, the City Council is,” said Ms. Roberts. The council has incorporated a number of money-saving proposals from the White Papers into its own budget plan.

White Paper IV, titled “Our City, Our Money,” points out a fundamental rule of government: “Do not eliminate positions that generate revenue.”

Yet the Finance Dept. is shutting its tax offices in Los Angeles and Chicago and laying off employees who currently bring in $38 million a year in revenue at a cost of less than $1 million. (See graph.)

Local 1407 President Maf Misbah Uddin and Local 1757 President David Moog strongly endorsed the position Ms. Roberts’ put forth in the White Paper. To improve the budget picture, they said the city should retain and hire more Auditors and Assessors, who are represented by their locals. Increasing and improving property assessments and
tax audits would produce over $150 million a year, according to the White Paper.

The union plan urges the city to offer an amnesty followed by “an aggressive strategy” to collect the outstanding $2 billion in tax bills. It shows how firms incorporated elsewhere make huge profits on contracts with the city but avoid paying city and state taxes. To close the loopholes, it calls for new legislation to require consultants and contractors that receive business from the city to pay a fair share of local taxes.

 

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