then met with him, reported later, “I gave him our suggestions for addressing the budget gap and we agreed to work together to try to avoid layoffs. We should all be working together to create jobs, not more layoffs.” Cuomo said he wants everyone to
share in the sacrifice, but also said he supports allowing the tax rates to drop for those with highest incomes. “Playing up to the wealthy and to
BUDGET BATTLE – PEF President Ken Brynien is interviewed about the proposed 2011-12 state budget by anAlbany reporter February 3.
—Photo by DarcyWells
Gov’s budget hits state services hard
By SHERRY HALBROOK As promised in his State of the State
message in January, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Budget proposal, presented February 1, in Albany, outlined massive spending and staff reductions and the restructuring of state agencies and services. He proposed job reductions that net out
to more than 11,400, including 9,800 possibly by layoff. Cuomo said he will cut state operations
spending by about 10 percent. He also called for closing unspecified state prisons, juvenile-detention, mental health and other facilities. The proposal includes cutting spending for private consultants by anywhere from 4.5 percent to 10 percent. The budget was presented in broad
strokes with little detail. Specifics, such as which facilities would be closed and how many jobs would be lost at specific agencies and worksites are to be revealed later, some after the March 31 budget deadline.
Fighting phantoms While many of the budget proposals
may rankle, it will be hard for opponents to land a punch. The budget’s vagueness will make it
more difficult for PEF and others to rally opposition and defend targets for closings and cuts until they are finally identified, when it may be too late. To further restrict opportunities for
opposition, Cuomo said he will try to repeal the 12-month prior-notice requirements for closing certain state facilities. And the governor will reduce resistance
from communities and their legislators who might fight a proposed facility closing by dangling the possibility of a $10 million state grant to those that accept their fate.
Page 4—The Communicator March 2011
Just sticks and stones No such carrots were offered to secure
the unions’ cooperation. Cuomo took 9,800 state jobs hostage.
Some of these jobs are tied to agency reductions and consolidations and facility closings. However, he suggests the unions could possibly save many of them by agreeing to $450 million in givebacks, such as unpaid furloughs, lagged pay or the like. Those concessions would be in addition to a 12-month freeze on state employees’ pay he’s already said he’ll impose. And the demand for $450 million is not just for this year, but for every year of his four-year term. Otherwise, the employees will be laid off.
The estimated 9,800 layoffs are in
addition to jobs eliminated through attrition and a hiring freeze. The only specific layoffs identified in the
Executive Budget are 23 positions, including those held by six PEF members, at the Science, Technology, and Innovation Foundation (NYSTAR), 18 at the Department of State (all but one are related to the elimination of the Tug Hill Commission which serves that large, remote area east of Lake Ontario) and 11 at the Governor’s Office of Regulatory Review.
Define ‘sacrifice’ The governor said he wants to work with
the unions through a “Labor-Management Partnership.” “We are willing to sacrifice, but we will
not be sacrificed,” PEF President Ken Brynien told the governor. “The governor’s ready to cut $450
million in state employees, but only $30 million in consultants,” said PEF Secretary- Treasurer Arlea Igoe. “Every consultant should go before they touch one of our members.” Brynien, who called the governor and
corporate interests in New York may be politically expedient, but it is poor economic policy,” Brynien said. “Two Nobel Prize-winning economists, Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman, believe extending the current, higher, income-tax rate on the wealthiest New Yorkers would be less harmful than massive cuts to state spending. They believe we should keep as much money as possible in our economy to get out of this recession and restore jobs.”
Devilish details Among the few details provided in
Cuomo’s Executive Budget proposal are: • A $154 million cut in subsidies to the
SUNY hospitals that could add as many as 2,700 layoffs to the 9,800 others proposed in the Executive Budget; • Greater freedom for SUNY to award
contracts without prior approval; • Create an “Asset Maximization Board”
to approve public-private partnerships at SUNY; • A $7.8 million cut in the subsidy to
the Roswell Park Cancer Institute that could add more layoffs; • Merge the state Department of
Banking and the Department of Insurance with the Consumer Protection Board to create a Department of Financial Regulation; • Merge the state Department of
Correctional Services with the state Division of Parole to create a Department of Corrections and Community Supervision; • Merge the state Office for the
Prevention of Domestic Violence, the state Office of Victim Services and the state Commission of Correction into the state Division of Criminal Justice Services; • Consolidate the state Foundation for
Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR) into the Empire State Development Corporation; and • Executive Order 4 created a Spending
and Government Efficiency (SAGE) Commission to recommend to Cuomo by May 1 how to eliminate 20 percent of state agencies, authorities, and commissions. His proposed budget bill calls for him to then submit the plan to the Legislature which could enact it by passing a resolution to that effect.
PEF Information Line: 1-800-553-2445
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