Statement of PEF President Kenneth Brynien on proposed state budget

ALBANY, NY (02/01/2011)(readMedia)-- The governor continues to claim that pain will be shared in his budget.

The State Executive Budget proposal would cripple public services without asking any sacrifice from businesses, corporations and the millionaires and billionaires responsible for the economic crisis.

This Executive Budget calls for funding cuts including as many as 9,800 layoffs and more than 1,600 in attrition to reduce the work force by more than 11,500 jobs. This in addition to the more than 11,000 jobs already cut since the fiscal crisis began. This is supposed to be about shared sacrifice, yet this proposal provides for a tax cut of nearly 28 percent for the wealthiest New Yorkers at a time when we can least afford it.

Unfortunately when the governor says everyone must share in the pain, he means the workers who provide vital services and the state's citizens who rely on them, rather than those responsible for the collapse of the state and national economy.

We will work with the governor to do our part to help during this fiscal crisis. We have solutions that will help close the budget gap without gutting state services.

We are willing to sacrifice, but we will not be sacrificed.

PEF is the state's second-largest, state-employee union, representing 56,000 professional, scientific and technical employees.

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