By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

When the City Council passed the new $47.2 billion budget June 25, it restored all the cuts the mayor had proposed in areas DC 37 identified as union priorities.

The council replaced about $215 million for summer School Crossing Guards, parks, a variety of health programs, cultural institutions, and public libraries (which also got a 10 percent budget enhancement).

During the council’s discussions on the budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, DC 37 local leaders weighed in with compelling testimony at hearings and buttonholed council members as the deadline approached.

The restorations came in the context of an agreement between the council and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on tax rebates for homeowners and the working poor, but the tax plan was put on ice as the state Legislature took a six-week recess without passing the required authorization.

“The full restorations are a big victory for DC 37 members,” said Political Action Director Wanda Williams.

Leaders of more than one-fourth of DC 37’s 56 locals — representing a wide range of services provided by union members in health care, libraries, cultural institutions, schools, parks and more —have gone to City Hall this spring to press for the budget restorations. They also called on the city to stop paying expensive private contractors for jobs that city workers can do better at less cost to taxpayers.

“It’s not in the public interest to cut programs like child health clinics and child care,” said Ralph Palladino, 1st vice president of Clerical-Administrative Employees Local 1549, “especially with money available to enhance the services the mayor plans to cut. We need more services for the needy, not less.”

Revenue for restorations
Union leaders, City Council members and even the mayor agreed that the city has $1.3 billion in unanticipated revenue. This money, union officials argued, could be used to restore programs Mayor Bloomberg targeted for cuts.

Comptroller William Thompson and DC 37 have shown that the city could save money by:

• Using more civilian workers in the Police, Sanitation, and Corrections departments;
• Generating millions of dollars in city revenue by closing corporate tax loopholes;
• Ending contracting out; and
• Reinstating the personal income tax.

“The proposed budget failed to ensure the safety of 1.1 million school children, but apparently the City Council has restored funds for School Crossing Guards for the summer. We are waiting to see this in writing,” said Dept. of Education Employees Local 372 President Veronica Montgomery-Costa.

“Contracting out adds an expensive burden to the cost of a project and is an inefficient use of tax dollars,” Local 375 President Claude Fort told the council.

Local 375 represents members at the School Construction Authority, which recently laid off 100 engineers, architects and project officers despite the mayor’s planned $13 billion five-year plan to build 90 new schools and modernize more.
If Local 375 members did these projects in-house, the city could save $810 million over five years, said Local 375.

As New Yorkers looked to cool off at city beaches and public pools, Lifeguard Supervisors Local 508 President Peter Stein and Lifeguard Local 461 President Franklin Paige charged that swimming programs in public schools are sorely underfunded.