Tucked in next year's budget forecast was a proposal that left Lawrence City Council members incredulous as they read through their summaries last Tuesday night: City workers would be asked to take 40 days off without pay to bridge a gap created by the dwindling of local aid.
"It was outrageous, ridiculous," said Councilor Grisel Silva. "The residents want their city to improve, and that will be impossible if this happens." Local aid contributes about 68 percent of the city's budget, but with expected state revenue shortfalls, Lawrence might get $7 million to $10 million less in 2010, said Mark Andrews, the city's budget and finance director.
He added that the city has already stripped nonpersonnel expenses and collected overdue tax bills, but that drastic measures are needed to close the gap. He said that furloughs would be temporary and that employees would recoup all their lost wages when they retire or move out of the city. Silva said implementing a graduating scale of pay cuts, up to 10 percent for a person making $100,000 or more, would make more sense.
I've always wondered why any local official is paid six figures.
Sports have a salary cap; so should they.
"When I started on the council three years ago, there were more than 100 DPW workers; now we have only 38," she said of the Department of Public Works. "How is the city able to do things like maintain the parks, the sidewalks, the airport?" Silva asked. "There are many things that need to be fixed, and I don't think this furlough is in the best interest of the city and its residents."
Andrews said the furloughs essentially amount to pay cuts and are the best way to balance the city's $242 million budget without resorting to layoffs. "If you look at some of the cities in the South Shore and throughout the region, they've laid off dozens of workers. They pulled the trigger, but we're trying to find a compassionate way of doing things."
Isn't a furlough a layoff?
I looked it up in the dictionary and they are the same thing!!!
So a FURLOUGH is now a LAYOFF, and a LAYOFF must mean TERMINATION!!!!
Oh, the WORD GAMES GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS PLAY!!!!
City Council President Patrick Blanchette said that more nonpersonnel cuts can be made, such as the stipends that Mayor Michael Sullivan gives employees, amounting to about $75,000 annually, and cutting back on the number of take-home vehicles that run up the city's costs for fuel, insurance, and maintenance.
You see, POLITICS is not SERVING the PEOPLE WHOM ELECTED YOU, it is SERVING YOURSELF here in SELF-RIGHTEOUS and SMUG "liberal" Massachusetts!!!!
Sullivan said that most of those vehicles, used by the city's Police Department, are funded through confiscated drug money.
Another both sides of the fence cui bono for the government!!!
Most city workers are already taking 10 days off without pay to compensate for a $2.4 million gap in the current year's budget, and last month, 19 employees were laid off after their union declined to accept the furloughs. Sullivan said despite the furloughs, residents have not experienced any major inconveniences....
Yeah, isn't it amazing how we DON'T MISS GOVERNMENT when it gets cut back?!!!!!!
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Also see: The Night Life of Lawrence
Torture Cell Found in Massachusetts
