West Roxbury Transcript
Yoon, Flaherty lead critics of Menino’s budget
April 21, 2009
By: Benjamin Buday
Boston – City councilors and city union representatives responded to Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s budget proposal from last week with less-than-favorable remarks.
Menino submitted a $2.4 billion budget to the Boston City Council April 8 that “aims to maximize resources and minimize impact to services,” according to a press release from the mayor’s office issued that day.
With the city of Boston facing a $140 million deficit, Menino asserted that with this budget proposal, layoffs might be lessened from an estimated 1,000 city workers to 565 through reform and cost cutting and union wage freezes. Twenty-two unions have agreed to a wage freeze, but many others are still holding out.
City Councilor Sam Yoon, who is running for mayor, criticized Menino’s budget, deeming it – and the mayor’s process of developing the budget – as being severely flawed. Yoon, who stands behind a report by the Boston Finance Commission from March 31, believed Menino is ignoring fiscal reforms that would “make a permanent difference in our budget, not just a one-time one.”
The report Yoon supports cites various ways to reform the city’s fiscal process, including ending overtime abuse; eliminating unnecessary high-end jobs; modernizing the fire department; acting on surplus property owned by the city; and fixing the sick and injured payroll system. FinCom and Yoon believe focusing on these amendments could save $74 million yearly.
“Those reforms would make a permanent change in [the city of Boston's] budget – not just a one time change,” Yoon said. “Our budget now conveniently ignores our inefficiencies and our wasteful spending and it puts all the blame on unions, but those are hard conversations that the mayor doesn’t want to have.”
City Councilor Michael F. Flaherty, also candidate for mayor of Boston, issued a press release April 13 in response to the budget.
“Since the start of the new year, the Menino administration has threatened layoffs for city employees if the unions do not accept a wage freeze,” the memo read. “Even if workers realize that some sacrifices will have to be made to solve our budget woes, no one likes to be bullied, as illustrated by the fact that only half of our unions have agreed to the freeze.”
Flaherty proposed what he calls “Give Six,” a concept where city employees, including nonunion workers who have not agreed to a wage freeze, would work an extra day every other month without getting paid. Flaherty said that an employee making $50,000 a year, which is the average salary cited by Boston’s Office of Budget Management, would sacrifice $1,152 a year. Applying this to the city’s 17,264 full-time equivalents would save approximately $19,888,198 a year.
Following the budget proposal, Boston Police Superior Officers Federation President Joseph Gillespie issued a statement condemning Menino’s handling of the budget and endorsing Flaherty for mayor.
“As the first union to accept the wage freeze, the BPSOF understands the need to sacrifice during difficult economic times in order to save jobs and continue to be able to protect our city with the necessary resources,” the press release read. “However, we feel strongly that the city would not be in such a state of financial distress if it were managed more efficiently and effectively.”
The Boston Teachers Union is one of the many unions Menino attempted to persuade to a wage freeze.
BTU spokesperson Stephen Crawford said, “We are optimistic that there will be additional funds beyond what have been included in the mayor’s budget,” citing Governor Deval Patrick’s announcement of Title 1 funds and BTU’s lobbying on Beacon Hill for increased restaurant and hotel taxes.
“We believe there’s additional money that will allow the city to avoid laying off a single classroom educator,”Crawford said.
However, a press release from the governor’s office on April 15 announced the House’s version of the state budget, released last week, slashes $532 million from Patrick’s budget. Because of this, cities and towns would see no increase in education aid.
However, not all responses to the mayor’s proposal were negative.
Councilor Rob Consalvo supported the mayor, saying, “I think the mayor’s budget is a real and responsible attempt to address this fiscal crisis.”
Consalvo said City Council will work tirelessly with Menino to minimize budget cuts and layoffs, but that those outcomes are the reality of the situation.
Consalvo stressed, “The story is not over yet – especially for us councilors.”
As the budget is reviewed by City Council, it will pass under more scrutiny through months of public hearings.
Yoon emphasized the importance of the public’s opinion being heard throughout this process.
“This is where the rubber meets the road for children, for seniors, for everyone,” Yoon said. “People need to know we have a system that isn’t working, and the flaws of this system are really going to be revealed in this bad economy.”
