Mayor Turner announces plans to layoff 400 firefighters

Close to 400 firefighters could be laid off in Houston, and that includes the 68 cadets that have yet to be sworn in. 200 other city empoyees could be cut as well. 

Mayor Turner is getting specific in his plan to implement Proposition B by giving firefighters their voter-approved pay increases, but it is receiving a lot of backlash from the community.

"I've made it clear to the media and to the people in the city before Proposition B passed that Proposition B was going to impose significant financial challenges for the city," says Mayor Sylvester Turner. 

Turner says that absent new revenue, the $100 million needed to finance the plan cannot be reallocated from anywhere else in the $4.9 billion city budget. 

"This is all about him getting even with the firefighters," says mayoral candidate Bill King. "If people in Houston die along the way, he does not care."

Councilman Dwight Boykins is fighting for his proposal to be considered in order to create new revenue to finance Proposition B.

"My proposal of a garbage fee will create a revenue stream to protect the jobs of city workers, and the men and women who provide our city with public safety," says Boykins.

Layoff notices for the firefighters are likely to go out by the end of this month, according to city officials.