Cities Hurt by Reagan Budget, Mayors Charge

The U.S. Conference of Mayors warned Monday that the proposed Reagan Administration budget threatens to create an America of “two societies--one rich and one poor,” and if passed would “cut or eliminate nearly every federal investment of benefit to cities.”

New Orleans Mayor Ernest Morial, head of the conference, said President Reagan’s $974-billion budget would block the movement of many Americans into the middle class and lead to conditions that could contribute to the potential for violent urban uprisings.

Will Present Report

After two days of meetings on the impact of the Reagan spending plan and on a strategy for opposing them, Morial and other members of the conference’s executive committee produced a report that they will present at press conferences in Boston, Atlanta and San Francisco in the next two weeks.

The report documents the potentially “devastating” effects of the budget proposals on such basic city services as garbage collection, street and sewer repair and mass transit, Morial said. According to the report, federal grants to states and localities will decline to $91.7 billion in fiscal 1986 from $111.7 billion in fiscal 1985, an 18% drop.

At a press conference here, Milwaukee Mayor Henry Maier said city leaders are “having a hell of a time coming up with the money to keep the bridges from falling down” and that “unlike (the Reagan) Administration, most cities have to continue to raise taxes.”

Chicago Mayor Harold Washington said his budget office estimates that the city would lose $307 million in direct federal funding next year, equivalent to about half the city’s federal aid. That would result in layoffs of 1,900 workers in health, sanitation and consumer services, and a mass transit fare increase of 50% to $1.35 from 90 cents, he said.

The city would also lose 5,100 summer jobs for low-income youths, 120,000 home-delivered meals for senior citizens and 7,000 new housing units, Washington said.