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Board seeks cuts

in Washington DC

budget

WASHINGTON: The financial control board appointed by the White House to rein in overspending by the District of Columbia said city officials had not gone far enough to slash the city's payroll.

"There should be a much sharper focus on reductions," control board chairman and economist Andrew Brimmer told reporters following a public meeting of the five-member panel on Saturday.

The board ordered the District to cut about 560 jobs over and above the hundreds of cuts that Mayor Marion Barry and the D.C. city council pledged in recent weeks.

The control board said in July that the city must save $180 million by cutting 3,600 vacant jobs and 2,000 occupied positions as a first step in balancing the city's budget.

Barry and the D.C council responded with varying proposals that included only a few hundred cuts.

The control board urged hundreds more cuts in existing employees beyond the figure the D.C. council had pledged.

The board said cuts must come from public school payrolls other than teachers, the executive offices of Mayor Barry, and the University of the District of Columbia.

"We wanted a reduction of 5,600 full time equivalent employees, we ended up with about 5,200," Brimmer told reporters about the control board's new bottom line.

He gave city officials until mid-September to come up with additional cuts. "We are hopeful and confident that they will do that. If they did not do it, we will do it," Brimmer warned.

The board's final recommendations are due on Capitol Hill in September, the board said.-Reuter