state budget wars

districts and constituents. On February 23 in Albany, PEF’s

Political Action Committee members were joined by members whose worksites and programs are slated for closing, consolidation or cutbacks for the annual budget lobby day. They met with the chairs and ranking members of key legislative committees to discuss how the budget proposals would affect state services and the public. Members at facilities and programs

targeted for budget cuts met locally to plan strategies for fighting those cuts and many mobilized letter-writing campaigns. The two-week advertising blitz in

mid-March was the first phase of that effort. It focused on educating lawmakers and the public about how the state work force has already been

reduced to dangerously low levels at a time when the public needs many state services more than ever. The 15- and 30-second TV ads ran

1,228 times in Albany, New York, Binghamton, Rochester and Syracuse. PEF ran both print and Web ads in

major newspapers. The print ads ran in Albany, Schenectady, New York, Croton-on-Hudson, Canarsie, Plattsburgh and Ogdensburg. The Web ads ran on the Web sites

of the Times Union, Press & Sun Bulletin, The Buffalo News, Democrat and Chronicle, The Post-Standard, Observer-Dispatch, Daily News, New York Post, and The New York Times.

All of the print, Web and TV ads

directed the viewer to PEF’s Web site for a list of the union’s recommendations for solving the state’s budget crisis.

AD CAMPAIGN—PEFTV ads spotlight empty desks at state agencies.

INTHE LOOP—PEF Reg. 3 Coordinator John Prince talks to Sen.George Maziarz inAlbany about state budget cuts.

– Photo by Richard Dillard

MAKING PEF’S CASE—PEFVPTom Comanzo (above) with Reg. 11 Coordinator Jemma Hanson and Marion Fox, speaks with Assembly Government Employees Committee Chair PeterAbatte about PEF’s top budget concerns in February. And PEF Director of Civil Service EnforcementTomCetrino (right) tells state SenateAgriculture Committee Chair DarrelAubertine why staff should not be cut at the Department ofAgriculture and Markets.

—Photos by Richard Dillard

www.pef.org The Communicator April 2010—Page 5

LETTERS—PEFmembers atTryon youth facility write to lawmakers.

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