Newark Mayor Booker Announces Pay Cuts and Furloughs

Newark's Mayor Cory Booker, a Democrat, is doing the job that other politicians aren't doing. Instead of solving his city's fiscal mess with more taxes and increased spending, Booker is actually calling for furloughs and pay cuts. We'll see if he can follow through.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker said Tuesday he will impose 18 days of unpaid furloughs through the end of next year on all full-time employees except for police officers and firefighters, a move expected to save 5 percent of their annual salaries. The salaries of 61 top city staffers, including Booker's own $137,022 annual pay, will be reduced an additional 2 percent.

Booker said the cost-cutting moves are needed to avoid layoffs, sustain the city's comeback and stabilize its budget amid a deep recession that has pushed the city unemployment rate to a 5-year high of 12.5 percent.

``This is a difficult time of sacrifice for our city,'' Booker said. ``We are following our governor's lead by doing what's necessary in this fiscal crisis.''

New Jersey's Civil Service Commission adopted a rule March 25 giving Gov. Jon S. Corzine and local governments emergency power to impose temporary layoffs because of the economic crisis. Corzine wants to save $35 million by forcing state workers to take two days off this spring. He also sought the authority to furlough them for 12 days, one day a month, beginning in July.

Corzine's plans still don't address the fact that the budget is higher than last year and his plans are just so much window dressing.

Across the river, New York Governor David Paterson (D) had called for job cuts and a smaller budget, the media framed it as an austerity budget, and yet the agreed upon budget is 10% higher than last year and there are no job cuts to be seen, but plenty of taxes and fees have been raised.

If Booker can avoid the tax hikes and hold spending in line while maintaining the basic services - including improved police service, then Booker will have succeeded where the other local politicians have failed. I hope he succeeds, because it would show the folly of fiscal irresponsibility that runs rampant around the region and the nation at large.