Bloomberg on What Paterson Cuts Mean for City Jobs

Speaking to reporters this afternoon, Michael Bloomberg seemed to hint that there could be layoffs of city workers if David Paterson’s proposal to cut about $1 billion in state funding for the city was enacted.

In describing the impact of Paterson’s proposal, Bloomberg said, “That’s an awful lot of city employees.” In fact, he said, “that’s 12,000-odd city employees."

Bloomberg said “this city’s budget is fundamentally a labor budget.”

When asked if he was predicting layoffs if the legislature passed the governor’s budget, Bloomberg replied “I’m not saying that at all. I was just pointing out that we don’t print money” and “there’s few things the city can do at this point to reduce its expenses other than reduce its labor costs.”