Layoff Friday Preview

The media mogul Mayor of Money looks to garner some sympathy for the layoffs he's going to announce tomorrow:

Mayor Bloomberg will reveal Friday whether he’s going full-steam ahead on laying off 4,666 teachers – or whether he’ll have to cut the budget even deeper than he initially planned.

Bloomberg's office isn’t giving many hints on the content of tomorrow’s executive budget address, but a group of protestors who had a long chat with the mayor as he returned to City Hall today said he didn’t seem too encouraging when they talked with them about the budget.

“He said he was really worried about it,” said Naomi Zauderer, who works for the Professional Staff Congress, the union that represents faculty and staff at CUNY.

“He says he’s not getting the money from the state that he needs to pay for the city education budget … He says it’s just terrible, just terrible, as if he can’t do anything about it.”

“He was almost apologetic,” said CUNY protester Iris Delutro.

Zauderer and Delutro weren’t clear on exactly what the mayor was worried about – teacher layoffs or something else – but when Bloomberg approached, Zauderer and her fellow protesters were holding signs from their parent union, the New York State United Teachers, so Bloomberg may have initially thought they were teachers.

“He said ‘our biggest problem is the UFT and apparently there is no other choice – to which we say ‘there are choices. There are other alternatives’,’” Delutro said.

The CUNY protesters, demonstrating against cuts to higher education, want to see higher taxes for the rich instead of budget cuts – but the mayor didn’t spend much time listening to their spiel, they said.

“He just wanted to talk,” Zauderer said.

What a liar this mayor is.

He is blaming the teachers themselves for the layoffs when HE is the ONE making the call on the layoffs.

The governor says there does not have to be layoffs.

The assembly speaker says the same thing.

The comptroller says the city has a $3.1 billion surplus.

The NYCDOE plans to spend $550 million technology next year to upgrade schools.

At the same time, THIS mayor, yes, THIS ONE, is planning on laying off teachers to save $300 million.

And he acts as if this just nature, like a tornado - nothing to be done, we MUST increase tech spending so we have no money for teachers and we MUST lay people off.

While this farce goes on at City Hall, Comptroller Liu is looking at many of the no-bid contracts Bloomberg and his DOE cronies have agreed to - from ARIS to Wireless Generation to the outside consultant scams that have seen one DOE consultant arrested already, and if Juan Gonzalez in the Daily News is to be believed, a few more who ought to join that one in handcuffs.

Millions have been stolen in the DOE and CityTime scandals, yet Bloomberg ignores all of that and points the finger at the state, the feds, the UFT - anybody but himself - for these layoffs.

But he is the one who has decided to do layoffs.

Let me repeat - he is the one who has chosen to do the layoffs.

This is his choice.

He could cut $300 million out of the $550 million in tech spending, shift that money to employee salaries, and do no layoffs.

He could take $300 million from the $3.1 billion surplus and do no layoffs.

But HE has chosen NOT to do this.

So sorry Mayor Moneybags - no sympathy for you.

You're trying to manipulate public opinion pre-announcement, just as you have tried to manipulate public opinion with your million dollar ad buys and direct mail efforts.

But it won't work anymore.

New Yorkers KNOW you're full of shit.

Mr 38%.