For the first time in the current budget crisis, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg yesterday raised the specter of a smaller payroll for police officers, firefighters and teachers if the city did not get financial help from the state. Aides said later that the mayor was not speaking of layoffs. þþMr. Bloomberg also indicated that plans for putting aside a proposal for tolls on the East River bridges would not help the city get through the next fiscal year's budget woes.þþMr. Bloomberg, who is in the middle of discussions with the governor, Legislature and labor unions over how much they will help the city out of a deepening fiscal hole, elaborated on sweeping cuts he will propose on Tuesday when he presents a budget. That will include a bleak contingency plan for $1 billion in cuts that he said the city would enact if Albany did not come through with help.þþÿThere would be no sacred cows whatsoever,ÿ Mr. Bloomberg told reporters at a waterfront development event on Staten Island as he discussed the possibility of $1 billion in cuts beyond the $600 million he has already proposed. ÿThat would require a downsizing in the number of police officers, firefighters, teachers,ÿ he said, adding that virtually no department would be left unscathed.þþTo make the $600 million in cuts, Mr. Bloomberg plans to lay off 5,401 city employees.þþLater, his spokesman, Edward Skyler, phoned reporters to say that Mr. Bloomberg did not mean to imply that layoffs of police officers, firefighters or teachers were pending, though administration officials have said as many as 15,000 workers may be laid off if the mayor has to make the $1 billion cut. Mr. Skyler said that there would be no reduction in firefighters or teachers but that their departments would be reduced in ways that Mr. Bloomberg will disclose Tuesday. The ranks of police officers will indeed decline, he said, but through attrition. An administration official said one way to thin the ranks would be to cancel a Police Academy class, which usually has 1,000 to 2,000 cadets.þþAsked if Mr. Bloomberg misspoke, Mr. Skyler replied: ÿI wouldn't say he misspoke. He didn't finish his thought.ÿþþMr. Bloomberg's message seemed in keeping with a plan to extract help from Albany by raising dire consequences. Mr. Bloomberg has sought, so far without avail, to revive a tax on commuters, among other tactics, to help close a growing $3.4 billion deficit in the fiscal year that begins in July.þþFor the police, fire and teachers' unions, Mr. Bloomberg's comments confirmed what they assumed: that their ranks might dwindle under a worst-case scenario. But they noted that Mr. Bloomberg did not say ÿlayoffs,ÿ and so they held back their criticism.þþOfficials at the police and firefighter unions noted that their ranks were already shrinking through retirements and resignations.þþAl O'Leary, a spokesman for the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, said, ÿOur staffing levels are already dangerously low, and when they begin to pull patrol officers from communities to do antiterror posts, you leave communities unprotected.ÿþþLabor unions, which have sparred with the mayor over ways to reach $600 million in savings, said they, too, would lobby legislators for a commuter tax. Randi Weingarten, the president of the United Federation of Teachers, the city teachers' union, said labor leaders would head to Albany on Monday.þþThe unions and City Hall, though seemingly on the same page with the commuter tax, have accused one another of not cooperating. Speaking on the steps of City Hall at a news conference with dozens of labor leaders, Ms. Weingarten, who is also president of the Municipal Labor Council, said, ÿThis army is going to work for the city of New York whether the general is going to work with us or not.ÿþþWithout union cooperation or help from Albany, Mr. Bloomberg is left with hard choices. He seemed to rule out the possibility of tolls on East River bridges, despite signs from Gov. George E. Pataki that he might go along with the idea.þþÿI think the problem with tolls on bridges,ÿ Mr. Bloomberg said, ÿis that the environmental impact statement alone would take a good long time,ÿ and so the proposal ÿis not really a viable source of significant revenue in the time frame that we need it.ÿþþþ
Source: NY Times
