District Council 37 Hearing to Examine Mayor Bloomberg's Budget Proposals

WHAT:

District Council 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts has called for a hearing into Mayor Bloomberg's budget proposals.

In his recent budget, Mayor Bloomberg proposes to raise spending on outside contracts by $600 million, from the current $9.7 billion to $10.4 billion, even as he insists on balancing the budget by cutting services and laying off public employees.

DC 37 firmly believes that service cuts and layoffs are not necessary. In fact, the city could go a long way towards closing its budget gap and eliminating the need for layoffs and service cuts by taking steps we have long advocated and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn recently proposed in her State of the City speech – holding contract spending flat next year to save $100 million dollars. Imagine how much could be saved if we reduced contracts 10 percent across the board as was done in California and Illinois and bring the work in house as has been done by New York State. The fraudulent $80 million CityTime scandal shows the pitfalls inherent in excessive spending on outside contracts and consultants. And, CityTime is just the tip of the iceberg.

WHEN:

Friday, February 25, 2011

9:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

WHERE:

District Council 37 Headquarters

Room 1

125 Barclay Street

New York, N.Y. 10007

WHO:

New York State Deputy Comptroller Peter Grannis

New York City Comptroller John Liu

New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio (invited)

NYS Attorney General Eric Schneiderman

NYS AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes

Councilmembers Darlene Mealey, Letitia James & James Sanders

NY City Council Finance Director Preston Niblack (invited)

Assembly member Richard Brodsky

Fiscal Policy Institute Sr. Fellow David Kallick

CWA 1180 President Arthur Cheliotes

Other Labor Leaders, City and State elected officials

Contact:

Zita Allen, Communications Director

Molly Charboneau

Rudy Orozco

212-815-1535

www.dc37.net