The Washington administration Thursday heightened the stakes in its budget battle with the Chicago City Council by issuing the first of an expected series of doomsday warnings that would result in the slashing of sensitive neighborhood services unless aldermen deliver a record property tax increase.
Mayor Harold Washington`s top Cabinet members–campaigning, in his absence, for a $79.9 million tax hike to fill a gap in the 1986 budget
–insisted that critics who say they are bluffing are wrong, a refrain from past showdowns between the council and the mayor.
If the tax increase is not approved at a council meeting Wednesday, officials said, notices will be sent immediately telling 10,666 front-line city workers that they have lost their jobs. The result would be drastically reduced garbage collections and the closing of half the city`s health clinics and one-third of its mental care centers, he officials said.
City Hall sources remained skeptical that administration officials will act on the threats and maintained that the officials are telling ”horror stories” to scare city workers and voters into lobbying aldermen to vote for the tax hike.
Ernest Barefield, Washington`s chief of staff, countered, ”That`s what they have been saying about the mayor and the administration for the last three years. We have gone through this experience of dealing with a recalcitrant bloc of aldermen for three years. . . . We will stand on our record whether or not we are bluffing.”
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Jobs targeted for dismissal provide some of the services most coveted by taxpayers, adding to speculation that they were selected to engender support among voters and city workers.
According to Barefield, city budget director Sharon Gist Gilliam and Comptroller Ronald Picur, the cuts would include:
— Firing 1,796 workers in the Department of Streets and Sanitation, a move that will result in trash being collected once every two weeks instead of weekly. Sanitation commissioner John Halpin said collection eventually may be pared to once every three weeks.
— Dismissing 257 employees in the Health Department, including physicians and psychiatrists. Officials said these layoffs will result in the closing of 10 of the city`s 19 community health clinics, 6 of 19 mental health centers, 1 of 3 tuberculosis clinics and 2 of the city`s 4 sexually transmitted disease clinics.
— Firing the city`s 400-member forestry staff. Those workers are responsible for such things as cutting down trees on city parkways, a service residents traditionally appeal to aldermen to arrange.
— Dismissing all 123 workers in the city`s rodent-control unit. Barefield, conceding that the move would create ”unsafe and unhealthy”
conditions, said it was ”likely the city`s rodent population would increase significantly.”
The proposed cutbacks are the first of several to be disclosed in the days leading up to the expected council showdown next Wednesday. According to Gilliam, additional layoff targets will be announced as officials complete a citywide review of departments. Other proposed cuts would include eliminating some jobs in the fire and police departments, whose staffs comprise 54 percent of Chicago`s corporate budget.
”There is no way not to reach into sworn personnel when we`re talking about 11,000 cuts,” Gilliam said.
Barefield, who detailed the layoff plans late Thursday afternoon, said he has been actively lobbying the city`s unions to support the tax hike, a campaign that seems to have won support from at least one labor leader.
”A city worker is going to say to himself, `Hey, the tax on my house is only going to go up $50, $60 or $70 a year,” said one labor leader who asked not to be identified. ”`I don`t want to blow my job over that.”`
Administration officials also have been lobbying city council members, who defeated the tax hike proposal last Friday in a 24-23 vote. The defeat stunned the mayor`s allies, who thought they had support from the 25 aldermen necessary for victory. Mayoral allies were brought up short when Ald. Burton Natarus (42d) broke ranks with the administration and cast the critical vote opposing the measure. The measure, while receiving 24 votes, required the votes of 25 alderman for passage.
Barefield, who said administration officials have lobbied Natarus heavily in the last week, blamed the tax hike defeat on opposition-bloc leaders Ald. Edward Burke (14th) and Ald. Edward Vrdolyak (10th).
”The two Eddies have been out beating the drums along the lakefront in wards where they thought they could shake the confidence of aldermen,” he said.
Natarus has denied that he was courted by the mayor`s foes, maintaining that he opposed the tax hike because of pressure from constituents. On Thursday, he appeared less inclined then ever to reverse his decision.
”You should have been at a neighborhood meeting in my ward last night,” he said. ”I got a standing ovation.”
City Hall sources said the administration also has been appealing to at least two members of the council opposition-bloc in an effort to win their support. Ald. Aloysius Majerczyk (12th) has denied reports that he was prepared to vote with the mayor in exchange for appointment of a top aide as ward superintendent.
An aide to Majerczyk said late Thursday that the Southwest Side alderman is on a long-planned vacation in Canada and is not expected to return in time for the council meeting Wednesday.
Ald. Bernard Hansen (44th), who was absent for the vote last Friday, confirmed that he had been lobbied but said it is unlikely he will be swayed from opposing the tax hike.
”The people I represent won`t stand for it,” he said. ”They have made that very loud and clear at meetings, and I intend to follow their decision.” Hansen, a former North Side ward superintendent, added, ”These cuts are unnecessary and will create severe health and safety problems. The mayor should be responsible and do what mayors have done in the past–discuss alternative cuts, generate new revenues, impose short-term property tax increases and borrow the rest to meet his responsibility.”
But Gilliam said borrowing was out of the question.
Asked if the mayor, who is in Mexico this week, was apprised of the possibility of impending garbage pile-ups and uncontrolled rodents, Barefield replied that he had been and termed the measures ”regrettable.”
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Residents of at least one neighborhood in Majerczyk`s Southwest Side ward shared the mayor`s appraisal, but they seemed unwilling to support a tax hike to save city services. Faced with the option of more taxes or doing without services, they chose neither.