{UAH} MITCH McConnell IS RIGHT DEMOCRATIC CITIES MUST DECLARE BANKRUPTSY AND LEARN TO REST TAX PAYER'S MONEY

De Blasio, City Hall staff to be furloughed for a week amid budget crunch

By Julia Marsh and Nolan Hicks

September 16, 2020 | 10:52am 

Mayor Bill de Blasio and the nearly 500 employees dedicated to his office will take one week of unpaid leave as the Big Apple desperately tries to shore up its balance sheet amid a new bid for budget aid.

The mandatory furloughs are expected to save less than $1 million but may build pressure on the city’s labor unions to come to terms with City Hall on the $1 billion in cuts de Blasio needs to balance his 2021 budget.

It also comes as de Blasio has struggled to convince President Trump and lawmakers in Washington to provide federal aid for the Big Apple’s coronavirus-caused budget crunch — or to convince Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers in Albany to provide the emergency borrowing authority to balance the books if help from the feds doesn’t arrive.

“It is with pain that I say they and their families will lose a week’s pay, but it’s something they have to do, it’s something I have to do,” de Blasio told reporters during his daily press briefing Wednesday.

Mayor Bill de Blasio Paul Martinka

 

“It was not a decision I made lightly,” he added. “It is the right thing to do at this moment in history.”

De Blasio’s longtime chief of staff, Emma Wolfe, told City Hall employees in an email that they would be required to take the five unpaid days off between October and March.

Hizzoner said that he would work during his unpaid week, but it was unclear if other senior members of his administration would be expected to do the same.

A spokeswoman for the administration said that senior officials could volunteer their time but would not be expected to come in, while lower-level staff would be barred from working.

The coronavirus pandemic caused tax revenues and other government funding streams to plummet by an estimated $9 billion.

Hizzoner’s latest budget banked on $1 billion in unspecified savings labor savings to close the gap — but there’s been seemingly little progress in talks between City Hall and municipal labor unions.

That’s left de Blasio beseeching the feds for aid, the state for emergency lending authority — and threatening to lay off as many as 22,000 city employees unless he can score a financial lifeline.

Only the Police Department has been excluded from the layoffs, which would hit the city’s firefighting, EMS and sanitation ranks.

EM         -> { Trump for 2020 }

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