City Freezes Hiring as Albany "Imperils" Budget
New York City burns as Albany fiddles
By MELISSA RUSSO
Updated 6:10 PM EST, Mon, Jul 6, 2009
Until Albany gets its act together, don't hire anyone.
That's the message from City Hall to New York City agencies. The reason? The city's budget has been thrown into uncertainty because of the chaos in Albany and the City Hall needs to begin the belt-tightening as soon as possible in order to prepare for the worst.
The freeze delays indefinitely more than 700 planned hires, including a class of 250 police recruits who were to be sworn in Wednesday. It postpones the hires of firefighters, traffic agents, school crossing guards, school safety agents, 911 operators and emergency medical technicians planned for this summer and fall.
“I’ve instructed the City’s Budget Director to immediately freeze all hiring while the gridlock in the State Senate imperils the City’s budget,” Mayor Bloomberg said in a statement today.
"Further, we will be reviewing all city contracts to ensure we do not enter into non-essential contracts," he said.
The city has about 300,000 municipal employees. The police department, the nation's largest, has about 35,000 officers.
Last week, the Senate failed to approve new tax measures that were included in the city's budget for 2010, which began on July 1. Without that revenue, the city said it will lose about $60 million a month.
Democratic Senators actually voted down Bloomberg's tax increase in a vote of questionable legality last week.
The city's Office of Management and Budget has ordered the full-scale hiring freeze to try to manage spending until the budget is brought into balance. This month alone, the failure to raise the City's portion of the sales tax will cost the City some $60 million.
First Published: Jul 6, 2009 11:00 AM EST
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