NOW IS THE TIME!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, Hanukkah, and holidays with friends and family.  Usually the week between Christmas and New Year's is slow, but this year, with our massive budget deficit, things are busy--and we need to make sure we are heard this week.

The administration is putting together its proposals to shore up our deficit for the remainder of FY 2010 and for all of FY 2011 right now, so this week is crucial in getting public input to the governor's office.  

We have a deficit of almost $700 million to make up, and every $100 million in cuts equals about 2,000 full time state or university employee jobs.  That's why we need to make sure we do the fiscally responsible thing and raise revenues--we've had enough cuts already.  

Council 18's Executive Board met on December 19 to discuss the importance of raising revenue and there was unanimous consensus that we should push hard for revenue enhancements.

The governor's phone number is 505-476-2200.  Our message is simple:  please raise as much revenue as possible to prevent any additional cuts.

Make sure you get every family member, co-worker, friends and neighbors to call.  If they get 250 calls from state, city, and county employees, it might get their attention, but 1,500 calls from public employees AND the general public will have even more impact.

Call now and forward this to friends and co-workers with private email addresses.  And please have a safe and healthy New Year!  --Carter

P.S. If you have a private email address (like yahoo or hotmail) or would like one, call me and I'll help you set one up.  Also, if you know other AFSCME members who would like to be on this list, please forward me their names and email addresses (preferably private email).  Gracias!

Carter Bundy
Political Action Representative
AFSCME International
1202 Pennsylvania St. NE
Albuquerque, NM 87110
(505) 266-2177 ext. 13 (work)
(505) 266-3155 (fax)