JAN 30: Fight Budget Cuts! Keep your City Maintenance, Recreation and Healthcare Services
Posted by Steve in News on January 29th, 2012 – 2 CommentsWe all understand our transportation system is about more than just getting you from A to B. It’s about people. It’s about creating a system that serves everyone’s needs. That means the issues surrounding our local transportation system go beyond a lack of bike lanes and crosswalks.
The latest PBOT Budget proposals will sink our city into billions of dollars in deferred maintenance debt. Street lights will go dark. ADA ramps will not be built. Hard working people will lose their jobs.
This is unacceptable, and I hope you will join Laborers Local 483 in taking a stand against the city’s proposed budget cuts. Please read their announcement below:
INVITATION TO THE COMMUNITY: MONDAY, JANUARY 30th
Keep your City Maintenance, Recreation and Healthcare Services!
PROTECT PORTLAND’S FUTURE!
On Monday, January 30th – join Laborers’ Local 483 members who are walking out at the end of their shifts at the Bureau of Transportation (which is eliminated over 60 positions) and hosting a community forum at Dishman Community Center, where we will discuss the deep cuts projected for Sanitation, Streets, and Parks’ Maintenance services. That day, all Portland City Bureaus will submit their budget recommendations to City Council. Nearby Legacy Emmanuel hospital workers of SEIU Local 49 will also join us to speak about imminent cuts to healthcare facilities across the state. Let’s talk about the consequences of CUTS to our community!
Join us after work at 3 pm for Local 483’s “3 o’clock Walk” & Rally at PBOT (2929 N. Kerby). Then march over with us and the Emanuel workers to Matt Dishman Community Center for a forum on cuts to services starting at 4 pm. Refreshments provided.
Imagine what rainy Portland will look like with your parks’ bathrooms shut, your streets and sewers full of debris, your children left with fewer indoor recreational centers to go, and your hospitals with even less staff to provide assistance to the sick and their visitors. The workers who keep Portland clean, moving, safe, and healthy need your support to PROTECT PORTLAND’S FUTURE! If you are interested in speaking at the community forum or any other time about how important these services are to your neighborhood, please feel free to call me at 971-322-8747 or erica@liuna483.org. Thank you!!!
In solidarity,
Erica B. Askin, organizer, Laborers’ Local 483
3:00pm: “3 o’clock Walk” and Rally at PBOT (2929 N. Kerby)
3:45pm: Refreshments at Dishman Community Center (77 NE Knot St.)
4:00pm: Forum on cutbacks and layoffs with impacted City maintenance and Legacy hospital workers.
Who is Laborers’ Local 483?
Aren’t the budget cuts a direct result of reduced income? Where do you propose the money comes from?
Good question! Contrary to the current popular narrative, the proposed budget cuts are in reaction to not just declining gas tax revenue, but are directly related to how PBOT has managed its money.
There are city funds that could be used to close the funding gap in the short-term. For the long-term, our city needs a more sustainable form of revenue for traffic operations. There will be more news on potential funding sources to come.