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Mayor’s proposed budget avoids teacher layoffs
May 7, 2009 5:31 PM
What’s the bottom line on the mayor’s executive budget? In direct New Yorkese, “It could have been worse.”
The good news in the budget — released on May 1 and set to take effect, after City Council approval, on July 1 — is that there will be no teacher layoffs for the fiscal year starting July 1, largely thanks to the federal stimulus money and level state funding.
However, it doesn’t mean schools are out of the woods. Staff will be reduced by attrition and the chancellor has told principals that there will be reductions in school budgets that may require excessing. These cuts come on top of school funding reductions of about 10 percent over the last two years.
The mayor has also pulled back on the threat to require employee contributions for all health plan premiums — at least this year. No cuts will be made to the five-year school construction program, where the city will instead use federal stimulus tax-credit bonds to fund school construction and create 25,000 additional seats over the next four years.
Commented UFT President Randi Weingarten, “These are difficult times, and the mayor has proposed a budget that, while we still have concerns about it, is thoughtful and responsible. We at the UFT have been working together with the city throughout this extraordinary year, first in Washington to secure federal stimulus funding, then in Albany to get restorations in the state budget, and now on behalf of working families to resolve the MTA crisis.
“[The] executive budget announcement is a reminder that our work is far from over. Our work starts today with the City Council to mitigate the city education cuts and continue to protect the classroom.”
The mayor is still looking for $400 million in savings from future city workers by instituting a Tier V retirement program and through “work(ing) with our partners in organized labor to secure a contribution … toward health benefits.” City labor unions have proposed $200 million in alternative health savings that do not require benefit cuts, the equivalent of $600 per city worker.
Excessing possible
School principals will see fewer discretionary dollars available to them in the schools, which will likely lead to personnel reductions. The Department of Education said it will “avoid teacher layoffs,” but there could be excessing of staff. If that happens, the UFT will make sure it is done according to the contract, Weingarten said.
The mayor wants to increase the sales tax and collect a fee for plastic bag use, but he nixed any increase in the personal income tax for the city’s wealthiest residents, and is so far refusing to consider a retirement incentive for eligible educators. While the UFT has argued that an incentive would produce immediate cost savings, the mayor dismissed the idea of any savings coming from retiring senior pedagogues “who would have retired anyway.”
All city agencies will see further spending cuts, too.
The budget economies were reduced by the city’s rollover of a surplus in the current fiscal year of $1.2 billion. That surplus was accrued from savings from both the November 2008 and January 2009 budget cuts as well as from taxes on increased investment by foreign banks, tax audits and what fiscal monitors call “one-shots.”
Mayor Bloomberg looks to raise revenues through a 0.5 percent increase in the city sales tax, repeal of the tax exemption on clothing sold for under $110, as well as the city agency cuts and imposition of the Tier V retirement level.
Also included in expected revenues is $100 million in newly imposed plastic-bag fees.
The job downsizing of some 2,268 city positions will occur in roughly equal proportion through attrition and layoffs. That will bring the total city-job reductions announced since Jan 2008 to 13,500.
City revenues down
City revenues have gone down dramatically, estimated by the Office of Management and Budget to exceed some $5 billion by the end of the next fiscal year, compared to FY 2008, which ended July 2008. Since January, city tax revenues fell by $680 million.
While the mayor forecasts an economic rebound beginning in 2011, the gap for that year is expected to reach $7.2 billion.
“The budget isn’t just about numbers,” Bloomberg said in putting the best light on a hard-times budget. “It’s about making choices that keep our social safety net strong for those in need. It’s about keeping our streets clean and safe for your kids and mine. It’s about continuing to improve our schools. It’s about creating jobs and keeping jobs here. It’s about keeping New York, New York.”
Yet while schools avoided the worst cuts, in part because of the advocacy work of the UFT and parent groups in Albany and Washington, the same can’t be said for other strands of the social safety net. The largest new cuts are in the Administration for Children’s Services, the child welfare agency, and homeless programs, a further fraying of the safety net.
The UFT and the coalition One New York had advocated strongly for the preservation of the social safety net.
As New York Teacher went to press, AFSCME DC 1707, the union represents workers in private, nonprofit social service agencies funded through public dollars, was organizing a City Hall “Demonstration to Save Public Child Care” to stop the threat of day care and Head Start centers closing.
