Franklin: 125 city workers to lose jobs, taxes may rise
May 1, 2008 at 1:04 pm by Thomas Wheatley in NewsJust came in via e-mail. City officials plan to lay off 125 workers in a first round of restructuring to chip away at the estimated $140 million deficit. Mayor Shirley Franklin has suggested several cuts and said that 788 positions — of which 441 are currently filled — will eventually be eliminated. Plans include raising taxes as well.
Click here to view Franklin’s letter to the city council that outlines her plan. Included in her proposal:
- Reduction of 135 personnel in support departments
- Reduce the number of operating municipal courts from nine to seven; consolidate the Office of the Solicitor with the Department of Law
- Eliminate 59 positions in Solid Waste Services and shift to bi-weekly collections of recyclables and yard trimmings
- Close 11 recreational centers for repairs and permanently close two recreational centers
- Eliminate city shuttle service
- Reduce the city’s contribution to health care plans from 77 percent to 70 percent
CL staff writer Scott Henry’s been at City Hall for most of yesterday and today and will provide more analysis.
In the meantime, I’m combing through the details to see if she uses any of the chatroom parlance with the council which she showed off when she made her most recent appearance here on Fresh Loaf.
May 1st, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Are they laying-off Pennington? It’s not like he’s around much.
May 1st, 2008 at 1:28 pm
The proposed budget is online.
May 1st, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Thanks for posting that, Joe. I kept trying to upload it onto our servers but the file got rejected. Obviously a computer error…OR IS IT?!?
May 1st, 2008 at 2:16 pm
I think the problem had something to do with the nut on the keyboard.
Some of us refer to it as an ID-TEN-T error.