Public Employee Press

Leaders lobby for city budget restorations

By ALFREFDO ALVARADO

Battles over Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s budget for fiscal year 2009 continued at City Hall where several DC 37 local presidents testified in May and June before the City Council’s committees on finance, health and education and advocated for increased spending for health services and putting a stop to contracting out at the Dept. of Education.

“With fuel costs skyrocketing, outside vendors’ costs will likewise increase for services such as food transport,” said DC37 and Local 372 President Veronica Montgomery-Costa at the May 27 hearing. “That could be done with trucks the DOE already owns and Local 372 Loaders and Handlers, who are living under the constant threat of layoffs.” She also urged the City Council to support the inclusion in the DOE budget line items and staffing requirements for Local 372 support service workers.

The contracting out of services was also a major concern of Eileen Muller, president of Brooklyn Library Guild Local 1482. The library has recently contracted out to the United Parcel Services, on a trial basis, the delivery of books and other materials from branch to branch. In the past members did that job. “The cost of this project is phenomenal,” Muller said May 29. “Would it not be better for the library to spend its funds on more books and materials and on keeping the doors open so the public can enjoy the services of the library?”

Judith Arroyo, president of United Federation of Nurses and Epidemiologists Local 436, testified at the Council’s health committee on May 27 and recommended increased funding for child health clinics, summer school nurses, dentists and dental assistants.

The mayor’s budget calls for a proposed 9 percent cut for the American Museum of Natural History and other city museums. “If the city goes forward with this cut the museum might have to reduce hours, shut down a number of exhibits and limit the number of educational programs offered to schoolchildren,” said Local 1559 Vice Preisdent Craig Chesek.

“We must find a way to not only stop these proposed reductions, but also increase funding to the city’s cultural institutions,” said Marcy Brown, treasurer of New York Zoological Society Employees Local 1501.

David Moog, president of Assessors, Appraisers and Housing Development Specialists Local 1757, asked the City Council’s Finance Committee to pass Intro. 26, which would restore the assessor’s oath and bring accountability to the tax roll.