Labor unions pressuring legislators to avoid layoffs to balance state budget
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HARRISBURG - Nine powerful labor unions have formed a new coalition aimed at stopping state legislators from using layoffs of state employees as the primary means of erasing the current $1 billion state budget deficit.
The Coalition for Labor Engagement and Accountable Revenue, unveiled Monday, consists of the AFL-CIO, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the Service Employees International Union, the Pennsylvania State Education Association and other labor groups.
Its formation comes as talks between Gov. Ed Rendell and legislators of both parties are about to begin fashioning a state budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.
The current budget - for fiscal 2009-10, which ends June 30 - is more than $1 billion in the red. Mr. Rendell, a Democrat in his final year in office, has proposed a $29 billion spending plan for fiscal 2010-11, while a top Senate Republican, Sen. Jake Corman of Centre County, said the state can't afford to spend more than $27.5 billion.
If legislators chop $1.5 billion in spending, thousands of state employees could lose their jobs, said Kathy Jellison, SEIU president, and that would hurt state residents by having fewer inspections of nursing homes, hospitals, elevators, restaurants and other services that impact public safety.
"We cannot rely on cuts alone to balance the budget," she said.
AFL-CIO President-elect Rick Bloomingdale said that Pennsylvanians "expect their elected officials to do the right thing by adopting a common-sense budget that protects public safety, provides services to the most vulnerable among us and promotes Pennsylvania's economic recovery."
"Pennsylvania already has the second-lowest number of state employees per capita," said David Fillman of AFSCME Council 13. "The focus should change to closing tax loopholes and ending special-interest tax breaks."
Before any of the current 77,000 state workers lose their jobs, some higher revenues should be enacted, the group said. They supported measures already being pushed by Mr. Rendell - a new tax on the sales of cigars and smokeless tobacco; an extraction tax on natural gas pumped from areas of Marcellus shale; eliminating a vendor discount that businesses get for paying sales taxes on time; and closing the "Delaware loophole," which lets Pennsylvania companies avoid paying state business taxes by headquartering subsidiaries in Delaware.
First Published May 25, 2010 12:00 am
