PEF dodges worst of ’06 federal budget bullets, but ’07 battle already hot
By JOHN MURPHY and SHERRY HALBROOK

In Washington, the tide finally went out in February on the federal budget for Fiscal Year 2006, which actually began October 1, 2005.

Working closely with its International affiliates — the American Federation of Teachers and the Service Employees International Union — on the Budget Reconciliation Bill, PEF fought funding and program cuts in the bill until more than $10 billion was restored.

PEF’s lobbying efforts persuaded Congressman John Sweeney (R-20) to change his original vote, and Congressman John McHugh (R-23) to break party lines to vote against this Budget Reconciliation bill.

But attention “inside the Beltway” has already shifted to the budget for FY 2007.

In his FY ’07 budget proposal, President George Bush is again proposing more program and spending reductions that could seriously undercut funding to New York state agencies and affect PEF members’ jobs and services. These cuts are to help pay for still more tax-cuts for big corporations and the super wealthy.

Again, PEF is teaming up with AFT and SEIU to analyze and respond to these proposals. And PEF President Roger Benson is writing to New York’s senators and congressional delegation to point out the dangers for New Yorkers in the 2007 budget proposal.

Jobs programs hit hard
As always, the state Labor Department (DOL) — which relies heavily on federal funding to provide and administer federal job programs for New Yorkers — is among the agencies most sensitive to the budget decisions being made at the nation’s Capitol.

When they add the cuts proposed for FY 2007 to those just made for FY 2006, PEF and its internationals are finding threats to members’ jobs and crucial employment service programs.

PEF takes those threats all the more seriously in light of the tough, uphill campaigns it is now waging to keep state Labor Department offices and services open and running downstate in Manhattan and far to the north in Massena (St. Lawrence County).

The unions’ review of key features of the president’s FY ’07 cut and consolidation plan for job training and employment programs has turned up many serious threats to New Yorkers, including:
• Cutting (from the top) inflation-adjusted funding for job training and placement programs;

• Dismantling the Employment Services program;

• Completely eliminating funding for Workforce Investment Act (WIA) programs to help unemployed workers, disadvantaged adults and at-risk young people;

• Using $3.4 billion of the funding saved by eliminating the Employment Service and reducing WIA programs to create a new consolidated program — Career Advancement Accounts — that would give each eligible participant a maximum yearly account (credit) of $3,000 to buy job services;

• Eliminate or privatize the America’s Job Bank program;

• Changing and contracting out parts of the federal-state unemployment insurance program; and

• Making deeper cuts in Trade Adjustment Assistance programs for workers who lost their jobs because of globalization and off-shoring.

Community services
The president’s FY ’07 budget proposal would wipe out funding ($630M this year) for the Community Services Block Grants (CSBG) — a move that directly threatens 21 PS&T jobs at the NYS Department of State.

These grants are the starting point of fiscal lifelines that run through the states, to Community Action Agencies (CAAs), and then to a wide network of local social service agencies, both public and private, that provide employment, education, income management, housing, nutrition, emergency and health care services that many people depend on every day.

Campaign Finance law
PEF’s political action efforts and those of other statewide unions have just survived a close brush with disaster.

The House passed the 527 Reform Act, anti-union legislation cloaked as “campaign finance reform,” which Representative Tom Reynolds (R-26) of western New York strongly supported during the debate.

If enacted, it would apply to state elections that occur within a federal election year and would subject statewide unions such as PEF to a 35 percent federal tax.

Members of the Senate, however, approved a different bill — lobby reform legislation (S. 2349) by a vote of 90 to 8. They got that bi-partisan support for their bill by agreeing that only certain amendments would be considered.

This blocked an amendment that would have added to the Senate bill the same anti-labor 527 measures that came out of the House.

As a result, neither bill has passed both houses and they are stalemated for the moment.

The Communicator May 2007

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