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So far, though, critics haven’t offered many concrete counterproposals—I’ve heard some talk about dipping into TIF funds, renegotiating some expensive contracts, reducing management-level staffing instead of front-line workers, and other “efficiencies” that arguably should have been considered to save taxpayers’ money well before the city’s deficit bulged to nearly $500 million.
“We don’t know the scope,” says Anders Lindall, a spokesman for AFSCME Council 31, which represents about 5,000 city workers. “The city claims it’s about $200 million this year and $300 million next—but we can’t say that’s the case. There’s not an open question that the city has a budget problem. But there’s a lack of transparency, a lack of openness. You have to rely on the mayor’s people to get an accounting. There’s not a lot of independent information we think you have to have to come up with solutions.”
