COLUMN RIGHT/ CHARLES MILLARD : As Democrats Seek Blame, Cities Suffer : The energy would be better spent in finding solutions for woeful urban conditions.

Mayor David Dinkins took an unusual approach to extolling the virtues of this great city. Instead of reminding the delegates (and the nation) about Broadway and our museums, about our history, music, architecture and dance, or about the beacon of hope New York still is for millions of immigrants from around the world, the mayor decided to catalogue a list of the ills that affect New York and many other cities around the country.

Dinkins spoke about the crack epidemic, the AIDS epidemic and the lack of affordable housing. He spoke about unemployment, homelessness and riots in our streets. Then he claimed that these problems in my city are the fault of Republicans.

I am the first to admit that neither party is perfect and, of course, Republicans have made mistakes. But isn’t it a little galling to hear the mayor of a city that has not elected a Republican mayor in a quarter of a century blaming the Republicans for all of this city’s ills?

The Republicans are to blame, we are told, because Washington’s share of New York City’s budget is significantly lower than it was 20 years ago. Did anyone stop to realize that the dollar amount coming from Washington has been increasing? However, the city’s spending has expanded so fast that the federal contribution has become a smaller percentage.

I would like to see our city get more federal funds for housing. But before we blame the Republicans for homelessness and lack of affordable housing, let us keep in mind that New York City has been unable to spend more than $600 million in federal housing funds now allocated to be spent here.

The crack and AIDS epidemics are indeed overwhelming problems. Every person of good conscience should be deeply concerned about them. I, for one, would like to see far greater amounts spent in this city on AIDS education and drug treatment for nonviolent drug offenders and pregnant mothers. This kind of spending is designed to prevent or cure social ills and that cost far more to deal with in the future.

But New York City, with a $30-billion budget, could spend more in these areas if the Democratic mayors who have run this town did not allow our municipal payroll to become so bloated. We have 38% more employees per capita than the average in other large U.S. cities. We have a contract with sanitation workers that allows them to finish their work in half a day and receive a full day’s pay--along with a $20 bonus for doing their work on a two-person truck instead of a three-person truck. And this year, after all the talk in New York City about downsizing government, the city’s budget calls for an increase of more than 1,000 employees. If Democrats are concerned about funding drug treatment, as they should be, let them cut the municipal payroll and use that money to address these problems.

Finally, the mayor blames our recent riots and citywide unemployment on the Republicans. It is true that part of the reason people riot is their sense of utter despair at the lack of hope and opportunity. But the reason there are not enough jobs in New York is that businesses have been driven out. Real estate taxes, sanitation nuisance tickets, the lack of an educated work force (not to mention ridiculous union rules that made the laying of cables at the Democratic Convention about as costly as the laying of cable for the Verrazano Bridge) have cost this city thousands of jobs over the last five years.

Somehow though, when President Bush asked the House to pass his enterprise zone bill that would create urban opportunities, the Democrats passed a watered-down version of it. Enterprise zones are designed to lift barriers to the formation of new businesses in areas like Washington Heights, a drug-infested neighborhood in New York City that just last week experienced small-scale riots; yet my mayor criticized the President’s bill and called for the passage of a Democratic bill.

The Democratic Congress and large city Democratic mayors lose credibility when they blame every social problem on Republicans. Republicans would look just as bad if we blamed every problem on Democrats. People should stop playing partisan politics while our cities literally burn.

The problems in our cities, as the mayor pointed out, are real and pressing. It is an emergency. The President and Jack Kemp, secretary of housing and urban development, have an urgent urban agenda designed to provide growth, opportunity and empowerment. Only when both sides stop blaming each other and start taking responsibility will we improve the often desperate lot of the urban poor.