Unity Needed for New Budget Approach

At the end of Monday's meeting, Plainfield Municipal Employees Association President Cynthia Smith came to the microphone to comment on the tenor of the agenda session.

Noting the number of argumentative exchanges with the meeting being taped for local television channels, Smith said, "It doesn't look good."

She added, "The tone is very terrible."

Smith said officials at the annual reorganization meeting on Jan. 3 voiced a need for unity, but she said of the agenda session, "This is the first meeting - you failed."

In what may have been an understatement, Smith said, "You get the feeling there are personal agendas."

Her observations do not bode well for Councilman Cory Storch's call for early budget talks and collaboration between the governing body and the administration to face harsh fiscal constraints ahead.

Past budget practice has been for department heads to submit budget requests to the administration, which can then adjust them if necessary and draw up the budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Normally, the city adopts a three-month temporary budget while awaiting budget introduction, a step in which the administration's budget is received by the governing body for further action and final passage.

The city did not seek extraordinary state aid in the last budget cycle and so did not have to wait for the state to announce aid to offset local property taxes. The budget was passed in December this time, but has been as late as the third quarter, buy which time most of the money has been paid out in increments equal to 1/12 per month of the previous year's budget. The balance leaves little room for savings.

Storch wants the process to begin this month, in the face of a state-imposed 2 percent cap on property tax increases, and seeks a 3- to 5-year budget plan. In addition, he wants more social services to migrate to non-city operations, as the Dudley House substance abuse recovery program has done.

This proposal assumes cooperation and collegiality in facing the current budget crisis affecting all levels of government. But as Smith notes, such a tone was not evidenced Monday.

Disagreements over funding for the Purchasing and Recreation divisions persisted Monday, even though Council President Annie McWilliams pointed out that the budget has been duly amended and passed. In order to move on to the next one and beyond, the two branches of government will have to find some basis for dialogue, or standoffs will ensue.

And as Smith has mentioned in the past, all of the city's bargaining units will have to show some willingness to talk about budget concessions for the coming fiscal year. At Monday's meeting, Councilman William Reid said 50 cents of every tax dollar "goes to police."

Though cooperating with the administration, PMEA has seen its ranks hit hardest by layoffs, while other unions have reportedly not come to the table. A perceived rift between the administrative and legislative branches will just make it less likely that unions will cooperate in the upcoming budget process. Union leaders will be watching to see what tone officials project with each other, and if it is combative, there will be less incentive for bargaining units to consider the overall welfare of the city versus taking care of their membership.

--Bernice