New York, NY – Bloomberg Budget Plan Has 3,000 Job Cuts

New York, NY – The city will need to reduce its labor force by 3,000, including firing 500 workers, as part of a plan to eliminate a $4 billion revenue gap over the next 18 months, a city administration official said.

The job cuts are in a budget modification plan Mayor Michael Bloomberg intends to present tomorrow, containing $1.5 billion in savings, the official said. The mayor and City Council enacted a $59 billion budget in June for fiscal 2009.

Plans include canceling the Police Academy’s January 2009 class, reducing the Fire Department’s training academy to 18 weeks from 23 weeks, reducing operations at five engine companies in firehouses that also contain ladder companies, and closing a 40-site Health Department dental program, the official said.

The mayor’s new financial plan “has required major revisions in light of the recent financial upheaval,” said Deputy Mayor for Operations Edward Skyler. “It will require sacrifice from every city agency and in some senses, every New Yorker. But we need to take these painful but necessary steps now; delaying the inevitable will only make it worse.”

Jobs to be cut include 321 Parks Department seasonal workers, 187 Sanitation Department street cleaners through attrition, and not filling 127 vacant Child Protective Supervisor positions at the Administration for Children’s Services.