I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
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Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry’s proposed budget for next year doesn’t raise any taxes to make up the city’s revenue shortfall, nor does it furlough or lay-off any employees. But it does balance the budget in large part by squeezing wages and salaries. Public employee unions presented alternatives to the city council on Wednesday, claiming that there are other options for balancing the budget that weren’t considered by the administration.
Mayor Berry’s budget reduces wages and salaries for all employee sectors, including management, by 3 percent, with the highest paid employees taking a bigger cut. Employee contributions to benefit plans are increased by 3 percent. Fire and police personnel won’t get their contractually agreed upon wage increases. And 162 vacant positions are permanently eliminated, with an additional 88 positions not being filled.
These labor reductions save $31.3 million, according to a synopsis on the city Web site. More money could come in from Berry’s proposed $2 increase in the garbage fee paid by residential consumers. Additionally, the various city departments have been charged with generating $8 million through internal efficiency measures, and the city will also negotiate lower health insurance rates for an additional $4 million.
Berry also listed about $14 million his administration has already saved this year to close the current budget deficit—savings that will continue into next fiscal year.
The bottom line for the proposed budget is $455 million, which would be the smallest city budget since 2006.
Berry explained at length on the city’s Web site his strategy of reducing employee take-home pay, juxtaposing it against furloughs and lay-offs.
“My intention is to avoid layoffs and furloughs if possible, while treating all employees equitably,” he said. “I believe furloughs and layoffs would have an adverse impact to basic City services and a local economy already suffering from significant layoffs in both the private and public sectors. Currently there are over 36,000 unemployed in the Albuquerque area and I believe it is in all our best interest to avoid adding to that already historically high number.”
Union leaders view Berry’s budget as one-sided, based primarily on cutting labor.
Albuquerque public unions think Berry’s budget is missing a range of options that would balance the budget while spreading the pain more widely.
“His proposal is all based on employees,” President of AFSCME Council 18 Andrew Padilla told The Independent in an interview. “Our hope is that the City Council, which is the governing body, will put together a budget that is more balanced, not so one-sided.”
AFSCME represents the city’s blue collar, transit, security, management and white collar public unions.
Padilla said the impact on labor is compounded by lay-offs made in the name of efficiency, citing the elimination of a drug rehab program this week that caused employees to be laid off.
“His proposal says there aren’t lay-offs, but we’ve had lay-offs in the recovery program this week,” Padilla said. “It’s kind of contradictory. They ended the program, saying it wasn’t efficient.”
The proposal presented to the council by AFSCME in conjunction with the firefighters and police unions includes both revenue raising measures, through tax and fee increases, as well as a variety of cost-saving measures. One suggestion is sending a quarter cent “quality of life” gross receipts tax to city voters and the reinstatement of an eighth cent gross receipts tax that was eliminated a few years ago. Other suggestions are the transfer of some capital dollars used for construction projects to the operating budget, as well as a variety of fee increases.
The unions also suggest a voluntary buy-out offer to select employees, the postponement of non-shovel ready capital projects, the elimination of public events around town, and a variety of efficiency measures within departments.
Additionally, in a letter to Council President Ken Sanchez, firefighters union chief Diego Arencon offered a delay by one year of salary increases the city is contractually obligated to make, plus the postponement of the firefighters cadet class.
The salary cuts proposed by the Berry administration are an unsustainable idea for the firefighters union, Arencon said, because they might cause senior and more experienced firefighters to retire early.
Arencon told The Independent that if necessary the union would be willing to revisit extending the delay in pay increases by an additional year if the economy hasn’t improved by the time the 2012 budget is crafted.
But, he said, his union is unwilling to reopen contract negotiations wholesale with the city, which the Berry administration is pushing for. There’s a precedent for modifying contracts, Arencon said, through memorandums of understanding instead.
The administrations continued insistence that the firefighter and police unions open their contracts for negotiation prematurely threatens the integrity of the unions collective bargaining rights, he continued, which are important to public safety.
“…our contracts help secure public safety by agreeing to safe working conditions—a safe fire fighter equates to a safe public,” he said. “Our contracts go beyond providing for our members, they also provide for our spouses and children. We run the risk of not coming home, we’re in at risk situations. The mayor and others have to appreciate that.”
AFSCME locals have just commenced contract negotiations, which were due. The city’s firefighter and police unions, however, have a few more years left before contracts must be renewed.
