Proposed Budget Calls for Cuts

Apublic hearing was held on Thursday night at the OnCenter over the proposed County Budget for the year. As it as been laid out by county executive Joanie Mahoney, the budget would call for cuts in civil service employment: over 2,000 employees will be temporarily laid off, while 51 will lose their jobs all together.

Student assistance councilors would be cut from the Baldwinsville, Skaneateles, and Fayetteville-Manlius school districts, and the county police department would have to ground its helicop

The county executive says that these cuts will save Onondaga County $7 million dollars. The office says that because union workers would not forego a three-percent raise this year, the county was left with no decision but to present this budget.


CSEA Reaction

Worried over the future of their jobs, members of the Civil Service Employees of America all wore their black union shirts to work Thursday, to show solidarity with each other, and opposition to the County Executive. So many planned to go to the public hearing after work that the county had to move the venue to the OnCenter from the Legislative Chambers.

Mark Kotzin, spokesperson for the CSEA in Central New York, says that the last thing the county should do in a time of economic crisis is lay off workers.

Kitty Massara, a CSEA employee, says that she and her colleagues are taking the news very personally from the person she elected, she says, to look out for her and everyone else in the county.