MAKE BETTER CHOICES — PEF Region 8 activists take part in a coalition budget rally at the Capitol in March. — Photo by Deborah A. Miles


MOBILIZED — Region 6 members from Annsville and Taberg juvenile facilities plan their defense against the proposed closure of Annsville. — Photo Lisa Pulver

LAYING IT OUT — PEF Region 7 Coordinator Tom Donahue, flanked by PEF Trustees Gail Noble and Olubiyi Sehindemi, explains to a staffer of the Senate Corrections Committee why Ogdensburg CF should stay open. — Photo by Richard Dillard


COMMUNITY CAUSE — Union coalition members rally in support of Ogdensburg CF, while PEF VP Joe Fox (below) addresses the crowd. — Photos by Lisa Pulver



LETTERS — PEF members at Tryon youth facility write to lawmakers. – Photo by Lisa Pulver


MAKING PEF’S CASE — PEF VP Tom Comanzo with Region 11 Coordinator Jemma Hanson and Marion Fox, speaks with Assembly Government Employees Committee Chair Peter Abatte about PEF’s top budget concerns in February. And PEF Director of Civil Service Enforcement Tom Cetrino (below) tells state Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Darrel Aubertine why staff should not be cut at the Department of Agriculture and Markets. — Photos by Richard Dillard



IN THE LOOP — PEF Region 3 Coordinator John Prince talks to Sen. George Maziarz in Albany about state budget cuts.
– Photo by Richard Dillard

By SHERRY HALBROOK
As state political leaders wrangle over various plans to close the state’s 2010-11 budget deficit, PEF members have been sending a powerful and consistent budget message on many fronts.

In late February and in March, PEF members delivered that message to state legislators in person and in writing, while the union barraged the governor, lawmakers and the public with a multi-media ad campaign. And PEF Region 8 activists turned out March 9 for the Better Choice budget rally and march in Albany held by a coalition of concerned unions and community groups.

“Various competing budget schemes are being put forward at the Capitol, but until one of those proposals becomes dominant we must focus on the basics of preserving and protecting the state work force and the public services it provides,” said PEF President Ken Brynien. “We are closely monitoring all of the proposals and examining how they might affect our members and state services. We are ready to focus on any credible new threats if they arise. Meanwhile, we are rebutting the myths about state employees and services and giving our political leaders and the public the facts.”

PEF’s army of political action liaisons (PALs) throughout the state met with their state Assembly members and senators in their district offices to discuss the governor’s Executive Budget proposal and how it will affect the lawmakers’ 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.


The state needs to re-gauge its budget priorities.

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.