NY1 News reported this afternoon that NY City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is "imposing a citywide hiring freeze" and ordering "city agencies to further trim their budgets." The Mayor is grappling with a $3.7 billion budget gap. He hopes to trim $800 million from the 2011 budget and more from the 2012 budget. Uniformed forces, district attorney's offices, and the Department of Education must cut spending by 2.7%. All other agencies must cut spending by 5.4%. The agencies have one month to submit their proposals for spending cuts.
As for the hiring freeze, it will remain in effect not only until the proposals are submitted but until they are approved. Public health and safety positions are exempt from the freeze, thankfully.
As a New York resident, I see these cuts having adverse effects, from big to small, on me and my fellow New Yorkers.
Education is one of the biggies. According to a recent NY Daily News article, "A 2002 state law gave Bloomberg almost total control over city public schools." Now, in 2010, 49% of people polled think Bloomberg has failed in improving city schools. My recent report on public elementary schools in the Clinton Hill area offers a snapshot of this failure as the schools rank poorly. Our New York City kids cannot afford a 2.7% cut in the Department of Education's budget this year and more cuts next year.
Crime is another biggie. I walk the streets of New York City, even in the wee hours of the morning, in safety that was incomprehensible in prior decades. According to the man's website itself, Bloomberg, crime has plummeted 35% since the Mayor took office in 2002. The plummet includes "an 8 percent decrease in violent crime that outpaced a national decline." Now, Bloomberg's going to cut our uniformed forces and district attorney's offices for the next two years. This idea makes me feel a little less safe.
Speaking of walking the streets, let's look at a small but important way Bloomberg's cuts may affect me and many other New Yorkers. I walk my dog every night, usually between 10 and 11 pm, as do many NY dog owners. A few months back, we were encountering rats almost every night on our walks. Instinctively, to dogs rats are prey. My dog would lunge at them and send them scampering under cars.
My biggest fear was that she would make contact with one of those germy little critters. So, I began walking her on a very short lead. This allowed her to get less exercise on her walks. It was one health issue versus another: exercise versus potential disease.
For months now, we have seen neither hide nor hair of a rat on our nightly walks. Their absence is thanks to the efforts of city departments. When sanitation hauls the trash away on time and the city exterminates, it keeps the rats underground and out of residents' sight. Workers also filled holes in the sidewalks that the rats were using as portals to our food-filled, human world.
Mayor Bloomberg's cuts could very well have us walking among the rats once again.
I understand that it is Mayor Bloomberg's responsibility to do something about the city's budget bind. And I commend him for trying to live up to his responsibility. However, I hope his plan insists that city agencies find ingenious ways to deliver the current quality of services to NY residents as they cut spending.
Sources:
NY1 News, "Bloomberg Calls For Hiring Freeze, More Budget Cuts," NY1 News
Rachel Monahan, "New poll shows 49% of people think Mayor Bloomberg has failed in improving city's schools," NY Daily News
Renee Morway, "Clinton Hill area public elementary school rankings," Associated Content
Henry Goldman, "New York City Violent Crime Down 8%, Outpacing U.S., FBI Says," Bloomberg
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