By LILLIAN ROBERTS
Executive Director
District Council 37, AFSCME, AFL-CIO

At one of the many rallies against the mayor's cuts that we have been part of lately, I shared the speakers' platform with Erica Santiago, a young working mother.

"I depend on the day care center to take good care of my 4-year-old daughter, Scarlett. How can I work if Bloomberg closes it?" she asked.

The mayor got some headlines by saying he would put day care funds back in the budget, but that was - to put it politely - a half-truth. The small print revealed that he was restoring only $40 million but still cutting $50 million and canceling the funds that make day care possible for 7,000 children.

Cuts like these will destroy people's lives and wreck our economy. Our City Hall fightback rally at 4:30 p.m. June 14 will answer the cuts with a loud NO.

If Erica Santiago has to quit her job, it will mean one less person paying taxes and shopping in neighborhood stores, and it will cost the rest of us who pay for welfare, Food Stamps and Medicaid with our taxes. She will lose the dignity of working and Scarlett will lose the educational boost that good day care provides.

The mayor's claim that he has no money to stop the cuts and layoffs and pool closings in the heat of summer is totally false:

• By letting the state "millionaires' tax" expire in December, he and the governor are cutting taxes on the wealthy by $5 billion a year.
• He is making no effort to collect the hundreds of millions of dollars in business taxes that are owed to the city.
• His budget increases contracting out by a half-billion dollars - even with the continuing arrests of his overpaid consultants and overwhelming evidence that too much of this money is wasted or stolen.

We are marching on City Hall June 14 to say:

STOP THE LIES! STOP THE LAYOFFS!
STOP CUTTING SERVICES TO OUR COMMUNITIES!

The mayor's budget will shorten the hours of our libraries, which are an important part of the educational system for thousands of students. It will eliminate teachers, threaten support workers, and undermine the schooling our children and grandchildren need to have a decent life and succeed in the economy of the future.

Connect the dots and see the real picture as the cuts expose the mayor's true priorities. He calls himself the "education mayor," but his budget proves he would rather cut off the future of our children than ask the rich to pay their fair share of taxes. The outrageous truth is that Bloomberg has decided to destroy the lives of city workers, teachers, children and families instead of asking consultants getting $400,000 a year to cut their profits a little.

We are rallying June 14 to tell City Hall:

PUT HUMAN NEEDS FIRST, NOT CONTRACTORS' PROFITS!
FUND SCHOOLS, HOSPITALS & LIBRARIES,
NOT TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH!

If the mayor won't listen, then the City Council must use its authority under the City Charter to put some fairness in the budget and make the consultants and contractors share the sacrifice by reducing their inflated fees.

To get our message across, we need a truly massive FIGHTBACK RALLY at 4:30 p.m. on June 14 at City Hall. We need the people who depend on city services and the workers who provide the services. We need every member of DC 37 to come and bring your families and your neighbors.

Brothers and sisters, this is not just for ourselves. I am asking you to be part of our fight for a better New York, a fairer and more just city for all.