Testifying on Wednesday before the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, PEF President Kenneth Brynien lambasted Gov. Andrew Cuomo's budget for unfairly demanding sacrifices from state workers.
"Public servants didn't cause this deficit, and it begs the question why state workers, school employees, and health care workers should be asked to bear the brunt of the sacrifice to address this fiscal crisis," said Brynien.
"The Executive Budget wants state employees to make more than $1 billion in concessions and cuts in SFY 2011-12 or face the possibility of 9,800 layoffs on top of the 35,000 positions already lost since 1990," Brynien said.
He argued that the state's workforce is not bloated, but actually rather lean compared to neighboring states.
In lieu of cuts to the state workforce, Brynien had a few of his own proposals, which included restoring corporate tax rates to their 2000 level for $1.3 billion in additional revenue and extending the temporary increase in tax rates for high income earners to net $1 billion this year.
Additionally, he suggested reduced public authority expenditures, reducing the cost of private consultants (Oh, how they hate consultants)
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