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January
17, 2003
Bloomberg Calls For New Round Of Agency Cuts
NYPD May Impose Layoffs to Meet Budget Target
By Deidre McFadyen
Mayor Bloomberg Jan. 10 confirmed what his Police Commissioner
had indicated two days earlier: the NYPD may have to lay off cops
for the first time since the fiscal crisis of the mid-1970s.
Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly had said that it would be “very
difficult” for the department to meet the Mayor’s most
recent call for a further 3-percent reduction in the department’s
budget without pink slips. While Mr. Kelly declined to offer specifics,
the department would have to lay off roughly 1,450 officers to achieve
the demanded cutback of $94 million to the department’s $3.4
billion budget through personnel reductions alone.
Warning to PBA
Mr. Bloomberg intimated that layoffs would occur if the Patrolmen’s
Benevolent Association proved inflexible in negotiating work rule
changes. The Mayor has been prodding the municipal unions –
so far to no avail – to agree to $600 million in recurring
productivity savings over the next fiscal year.
“If we can get, for example, in the case of the police, the
existing staff to do more with less, then we won’t need layoffs,”
said Mr. Bloomberg on his regular Friday morning radio show. “If
we can’t find ways, or if everybody can’t agree on ways
to do that, it will probably come down to that. The Police Department
in particular is virtually all salaries.”
PBA President Patrick J. Lynch earlier in the week argued that
laying off cops would undermine the city’s recovery. “Laying
off police officers as this city struggles to fight terrorism and
rebuild its economy is not an option,” he said. “The
NYPD must be exempt from additional cuts because without an adequate
number of police officers, this city is not viable for business
or people.”
Other Agencies Cut 6%
The Mayor’s most recent salvo came as most city agencies
prepared to submit proposals Jan. 13 for cutting their budgets an
additional 6 percent for the 2004 fiscal year, which begins in July.
The Department of Education and the four uniformed services were
asked to trim their budgets by 3 percent.
This fourth round of spending reductions would come on top of $2.5
billion in agency cuts imposed since Mr. Bloomberg took office last
January. The new cutbacks will save the city about $500 million
as it seeks to close a projected $3.2 billion deficit in the next
projected fiscal year.
Budget Director Mark Page blamed the need for additional reductions
on the weak economy in a Jan. 6 memo to agency heads. “Forecasts
of the national economy have recently delayed and flattened the
outlook for economy recovery,” he wrote “These forecasts
are an important underlying factor in the city’s own economic
outlook, which drives our expectations. The holiday retail experience,
fourth-quarter Wall Street results, and recent tax collection experience
all suggest that we must be prepared to address a further decline
in our tax revenue resources.”
Pin Blame on Council
But Bloomberg officials also privately faulted the City Council
for limiting the property tax hike it approved in November to 18.5
percent, when the Mayor had sought a 25-percent increase.
Council spokesman Chris Policano said the legislative body stood
by its decision. “It’s absolutely true that the Council
felt that 25 percent was too high, and that’s why we negotiated
with the Mayor or to bring it down to 18.5 percent,” he said.
“We’re not going to apologize for that.”
The department’s headcount has sunk from an all-time high
of 40,802 in March 2000 to 37,800 today. Another thousand are expected
to quit over the next six months. In November, the NYPD reduced
its July 2003 recruitment class from 2,400 to 500 – the number
of new cops needed to meet a headcount target for July of 37,210
roughly the same number as the city had in 1996.
Commissioner Kelly said that the NYPD, at this point intended to
proceed with the July hiring class.
The department laid off 103 custodians last month.
Despite a 1,600-officer drop in the police force last year, crime
in New York City last year continued an 11-year decline, falling
by 5.6 percent.
Mr. Kelly indicated that he would impose layoffs only with reluctance.
“We have to continue to provide services, so obviously nobody
would want to lay off police officers,” he said. “But
we have to examine all the ramifications of the $94 million reduction.”
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