Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson announced earlier this week that due to cuts in state funding the city was forced to cut 321 jobs including a reduction in police officers and fire fighters. This bold move is to battle $35.7 million in projected cutbacks of state aid to the city. Included in the 321 job cuts are 81 police offers and 42 police cadets scheduled to graduate soon. 51 fire fighters are also included and the cuts will go into effect on June 1 of this year. However the cuts in police and fire personnel only make up 6% of the cities employees and some are questioning if they are necessary and wondering if other more non-essential jobs could have been cut elsewhere.
Mayor Jackson was quick to blame state leaders for the cuts shifting the political blame from his office to that of the Governor’s. "We worked hard to try to minimize this," Jackson told reporters Monday at the press conference at City Hall. "The state has eliminated our flexibility."
According to the Governor’s office the cuts in the state budget designated to all the cities in Ohio are painful, but necessary to assure Ohio gets back on track with its budget. In the long run the cuts will help Ohio.
This is an emotional issue for everyone in Cleveland. No one wants to see any jobs cut especially essential jobs in the police and fire departments. However also included in Mayor Jackson’s press conference was an announcement of other cuts as well. The city will delay trash pickups on collection days, push back pickup of bulk items by several days, cut back on street repairs and cleaning and eliminate leaf collections. Service crews may take a day or more to remove dead animals, empty trash containers on public property and clean up after special events. The city will only staff playgrounds attached to recreation centers, leaving 20 independently standing playgrounds unattended. Recreation centers will close on Saturdays. Pools will remain closed on Mondays and Tuesdays in the summer, as in the past, but now no exceptions will be made when temperatures soar above 85 degrees.
When you look at the whole picture these city cutbacks look more like they are done on purpose to rally the people against State politicians rather than forced cuts due to lack of state aid. So who is to blame? That is the question it seems that everyone is asking now. Could there be other ways to save the city money and not cut so much that effects the safety of the people that live in the city? Some have even said they feel like pawns in the political game…expendable. All anyone can do is ride this out and see if the sacrifices actually do put Ohio back on track and prosperous again.
Continue reading on Examiner.com: Mayor Frank Jackson Cuts 321 City Workers But Who Is To Blame? - Cleveland Tea Party | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/tea-party-in-cleveland/mayor-frank-jackson-cuts-321-city-workers-but-who-is-to-blame#ixzz1MeHbYSAG
No comments:
Post a Comment