In light of the nearly $5 billion budget deficit facing New York City, District Council 37, the city’s largest public employee union, today announced recommendations that could save the city $500 million to $1 billion. The proposals, in the form of a "white paper," were made public at a news conference at City Hall attended by DC 37 local presidents and members who helped develop the recommendations.

Some of the DC 37 recommendations, such as an aggressive civilianization plan, could save the city $126 million, and could be acted upon immediately. Others, such as the reinstatement of the commuter tax, would raise revenues by $500 million, but require legislative action. Other proposals are long term. Collectively, the DC 37 proposals fall into five major categories: Civilianization; Contracting-in; Efficiencies and "Work-Smarter" Ideas; Revenues and Economic Development; Legislative and Administrative Proposals.

"The Mayor asked for recommendations for increased savings and revenues, and we have delivered," said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts. "We reached out to our 125,000 members who work in every city agency. We asked them to identify reservoirs of savings that would be gap-closing. From their suggestions, we developed a ‘white paper’ detailing some of their proposals and spelling out the amounts that could be saved by trimming unnecessary costs or wasteful practices. The total is nearly $1 billion if all of our proposals were acted upon. This is just a sample of what we can do to insure that our city survives the budget crisis."

Among other proposals, the recommendations call for:

• A staffing analysis of not only the New York Police Department, but the Dept. of Corrections, Fire Department, and Sanitation Department in order to implement increased civilianization at an estimated cost savings of over $100 million.
  

• Contracting-in of design and construction work at the Division of Design and Construction at a cost savings of $76 million over a ten-year period.
  

• Reduction of waste at the Board of Education by eliminating rented space in Brooklyn and three buildings the Board owns that are virtually empty. The proposal also calls for stopping the proliferation of hiring consultants in Community School Districts, Office of School Food and Nutrition Services, Office of Pupil Transportation and the Board of Education Central offices.
  

• DC 37 is proposing a joint labor-management initiative with the Mayor’s Office of Health Insurance Access, HHC, and other agencies to begin an aggressive campaign to enroll eligible New Yorkers into Family Health Plus, whereby HHC facilities could realize $3,000 for each enrollment. This could provide additional funding sources for HHC’s critical survival, which is so vital to the communities it serves.

"At a time of fiscal crisis, we believe these proposals are a responsible ways to raise revenues and reduce expenses," said Ms. Roberts. "Unlike Mayors in the past, this Mayor has indicated there are no ‘sacred cows’ in his budget proposals. Therefore, we would expect these recommendations and others we may make in the future to be acted upon.

"The Mayor is right when he says, ‘We are all in this together.’ New York is our city as well as our employer, and 85% of our members live, vote, and pay taxes here. We are committed to being an active participant in pointing out ways to close the deficit, and we will be actively looking and monitoring to see if these proposals are being followed. We will vigorously pursue these recommendations in an effort to achieve a budget that meets the needs of our members and the working men and women our city. These proposals have taken several months to develop and, if implemented, would benefit the unemployed, our members, business, and the city."

Related Information:

• DC 37 Recommendations for Fiscal Year 2003 Savings
  for the New York City Budget (PDF)*
  
  

*Download Acrobat Reader to view and print PDF files.