For Immediate Release
Wednesday, February 13, 2002
McEntee Touts AFSCME's Four Strategies for Easing State Budget Crises
Fight to Put Working Family Needs First, AFSCME President Urges Labor Leaders
WASHINGTON —State governments can pursue a variety of alternative strategies to spending and personnel cuts to manage the serious budget imbalances affecting them, Gerald W. McEntee, President of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), AFL-CIO, told a conference of labor leaders from around the country this morning.
Due to the recession, skyrocketing health care costs and staggering unemployment, states and localities are facing a $50 billion cumulative budget deficit and finding it much more difficult to fund vital public services such as public safety, education, and health care for their residents.
"Working families across the country are already getting battered. Now some of their elected leaders want to cut drastically the services they depend on and lay off the hard-working employees who deliver them. It's up to us to show these officials that there are smarter and fairer ways to close budget gaps," President McEntee told the crowd of state and local labor activists on hand for AFSCME's Budget Crisis Strategies Conference at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.
Other speakers joining President McEntee and AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer William Lucy at the conference include Felix Rohatyn, former ambassador to France, investment banker, and architect of the New York City bailout in the late 1970s; H. Carl McCall, New York State Comptroller; and Bernie Horn, policy director, Center for Policy Alternatives.
President McEntee said AFSCME is supporting grassroots solutions to help states, localities, businesses and residents weather the fiscal storm and work together towards economic recovery:
- Suspend tax cuts — When times are good, it's easy for elected officials to cut taxes, but now scheduled tax cuts at the federal, state, and local levels must be suspended to balance budgets and preserve vital services, as Connecticut, Florida, Oregon, and Maryland have done.
- Reduce health care costs — States are absorbing huge increases in health care expenses mainly because of the rising cost of prescription drugs for residents, but pooling the purchasing power of state employees, retirees, and clients will force big pharmaceutical companies to offer their lowest prices, as the example of Maine demonstrates.
- Tap "rainy day" funds — Almost every state has a fund for tougher times, and they should tap their reserves until the economy recovers. California, New York, Massachusetts, Ohio, Washington, Minnesota, and Kentucky have all used or proposed using rainy day funds.
- Provide federal support — With states taking on extra public safety and health costs after Sept. 11, the Bush administration should be proposing an increase in federal Medicaid aid to the states rather than serious cuts in many domestic programs.
Prepared remarks of speakers and other conference documents available on the AFSCME Budget Crisis Strategies Conference page
