Budget
murky mix of mergers, closings, service shortcuts
Program, job
cuts abound in proposed state budget
By SHERRY HALBROOK
The state Executive Budget proposed by Gov. George Pataki
threatens many state jobs and services in an attempt to
close an $11.5 billion budget shortfall without resorting
to what he calls “job-killing taxes.”
Topping the list of proposed cuts to state services are:
• Closing by July 1 Hutchings, Elmira and Middletown
psychiatric centers;
• Closing by October 1, 2005 both the Bronx and the
Bronx Children’s psychiatric centers;
• Merging the state’s two facilities for basic
research into mental illness — the Nathan Kline
Institute (NKI) and the New York Psychiatric Institute
(NYPI);
• Closing by July 1 the Institute for Basic Research
(IBR), which searches for causes, treatments and
preventives for mental retardation and developmental
disabilities;
• Privatizing the state university’s three
teaching hospitals;
• Cutting 435 full-time engineering jobs at the
state Transportation Department (DOT);
• Cutting 234 full-time staff at the state
Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC);
• Reducing housing capacity for troubled youths by
250 beds operated by the state Office of Children and
Family Services (OCFS);
• Numerous other mergers and consolidations at these
agencies and the state Education Department (SED), the
Labor Department (DOL), and the Alcoholic Beverage
Control Board (ABC).
Do job cuts mean
layoffs?
The governor said he would try to avoid outright layoffs
of state workers.
“Our first priority is to avoid layoffs. We are glad
the governor says he doesn’t want to lay off our
members, and we are heartened by state Senate Majority
Leader Joseph Bruno’s repeated public statements
that no state workers will be laid off,” said PEF
President Roger Benson.
“However, it won’t be possible to avoid layoffs
if all of the cuts in this budget proposal are made. The
cost of bridging this budget gap can and should be spread
more fairly among all New Yorkers,” Benson added.
“PEF strongly urges state leaders to enact a small
temporary tax surcharge on the wealthiest New Yorkers,
and close corporate tax loopholes. These two, modest
steps would not kill our state’s chances for
economic growth and they would allow state services vital
to very fragile and needy New Yorkers to continue.”
Overall, the proposed budget would eliminate about 5,000
positions from a state work force that has already been
reduced by approximately 5,000 since November 2001.
“The major layoff threat is for the 1,785 positions
to be abolished beyond those the state expects to be
vacated by attrition, particularly because the governor
does not propose continuing the current early retirement
incentive beyond March 31, 2003,” said Tom Cetrino,
PEF’s director of civil service enforcement.
No more ERI
options
In spite of the large number of jobs the governor would
cut, he is proposing no early retirement incentives for
2003-04.
Pataki does propose to make state employees and retirees
pay a greater share of their health insurance costs. The
state would have to negotiate this with PEF and other
unions representing state employees.
However, if the Legislature approves it, the state could
simply impose the changes on retirees without the need to
bargain.
See related budget links below:
• Office of Mental Health
(OMH)
• Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental
Disabilities (OMRDD)
• Office of Children and
Family Services (OCFS)
• Transportation Department (DOT)
• Office of General Services (OGS)
• Department of Environmental
Conservation (ENCON)
• Education Department (SED)
• Vocational Education Services to Individuals with
Disabilities (VESID)
• Health Department (DOH)
• Department of Corrections
Services
• Division of Parole (DOP)
• Department of Motor Vehicles
(DMV)
|
OPPOSING
THE CLOSING — PEF Executive Board Member Nithiananda
Chatterjie and Assemblyman Mike Cusick listen to PEF
leaders oppose the IBR closing at a press conference on
Staten Island in February. — Photo by Ken Dischel
