Atlanta mayor proposes cuts, layoffs in 2012 spending budget
Facing an $18 million spending gap, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has proposed a slimmed down 2012 spending budget – but it will not come without some pain.
With this year’s budget, around 130 city employees are facing layoffs. However, public safety employees are exempt.
In addition, all city workers making more than $80,000 will take a three percent salary cut.
Reed is proposing that the city spend $545 million for the 2012 fiscal year, a figure that is down from last year’s $560 million budget. But the budget was crafted under the assumption that there would be no changes in the pension, which the mayor had initially hoped.
Thirty-eight percent of employee payroll would continue to go toward pension costs.
"We made it very clear that a budget that assumed no changes, was going to have an impact on headcounts and city services," Farooqui said. "Our budget gap was the smallest of any major government and we worked diligently to come up with ways to reduce that gap, while preserving the investments we have already made. The reductions in force are a result of all of those strategies and solutions being vetted first."
Pension reform is not dead and the council is still debating it, but no changes in the budget structure basically results in a no-change budget and tight spending.
There are currently around 300 employees – mostly managers, directors and people in the law and finance departments – who make more than $80,000 a year. Reed, who makes $147,000, would also be impacted by the cuts, but judges would not.
"The mayor said that is not an option. Public safety is a priority,"
Gina Pagnotta, a Public Works Department employee and the president of the Professional Association of City Employees, would not directly comment yet on the budget.
She said she is still reading over the massive document to see where most of the cuts would come from. An early read of the budget indicates that many of the cuts might come from the Department of Watershed Management – the unit in charge of fixing the city’s sewers and handling drinking water services for thousands of Atlanta residents.
The budget, which has to be approved by July 1, includes:
- Funding for an additional 100 police officers, bringing the city closer to the goal of a 2,000-member force.
- Adding $20 million for the city's reserves, which would increase that fund to more than $75 million.
- A first time $100,000 grant to the city's Neighborhood Planning Units to assist with everyday needs like photocopying and stamps.
Budget hearings will begin Tuesday morning when the council will listen to representatives from the Atlanta Development Authority, the Citizens Review Board and the Ethics Board.
Budget hearings will run through June.
About the Author
Ernie Suggs is an enterprise reporter covering race and culture for the AJC since 1997. A 1990 graduate of N.C. Central University and a 2009 Harvard University Nieman Fellow, he is also the former vice president of the National Association of Black Journalists. His obsession with Prince, Spike Lee movies, Hamilton and the New York Yankees is odd.
