City Set to Cut 10,000 Jobs

Area residents for the most part reacted resignedly to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's announcement Thursday afternoon that more painful budget cuts would need to be made — including more than 10,000 layoffs at city agencies in the next two years.

"Everybody is hurting now," said resident Jason Langham at the Starbucks in Little Neck Plaza. "It's not surprising that the city's in the same position."

The cuts include elimination of city jobs in the form of layoffs and reduction in funding for police, fire and education. The mayor says the measures are necessary to close a projected budget gap estimated at more than $3 billion for fiscal year 2012.

"We face a significant challenge for next year as federal stimulus dollars run dry and the city still suffers from the impacts of the national economic downturn," Bloomberg said.

In addition to the planned layoffs, the mayor plans to effectively reduce employee rolls by instructing city agencies not to replace retiring workers.

The most deeply-felt cuts are likely to be in education, with $350 million in city school spending set to be slashed from the budget and approximately 6,000 positions eliminated.

"I think there are ways to cut the budget without laying off workers," said state Sen.-elect and former mayoral candidate .

Avella said he thought the mayor's announcement of planned budget cuts and layoffs was a ploy to spur the City Council and the State Legislature to act. 

"When I get to Albany, I will look closely at what he is suggesting," Avella said. "But I'll also look at suggestions made by other groups to save or increase revenue."

Though Bayside resident Peter Jun acknowledged the reductions in spending would be painful, he said targeting city schools was preferable to deeper cuts in other areas such as policing and fire protection.

"Before education, the primary concern of most residents is to feel safe,"  Jun said.

Douglas Manor resident Gary McCarthy, who worked for the city's Law Department for seven years in the 1990s, said he thought perhaps some of the job and spending cuts could still be averted.

"I know that there was then, and there probably is now, a lot of waste in the system," McCarthy said.

Reacting to mayor's budget announcement earlier today, Councilman Dan Halloran, R-Whitestone, said he generally supported the administration's plan to address a projected $3 billion budget shortfall, blaming the city's dire economic straits on Democrats in Albany and Washington, D.C.

However, Halloran did part ways with the mayor on his plan to close 20 firehouses throughout the city.

Though none of the firehouses are in Halloran's council district, he said the closures would affect northeastern Queens by stretching the city's interconnected web of first responders.

At 24 square miles, Council District 19 is the largest in terms of geography in the city.

"We cannot make any more cuts when it comes to public safety," he said.