The New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF), which has been lobbying for years to put a stop to cuts in services for the mentally ill, finally realized a victory of sorts when New York Governor George Pataki proposed a budget that would put a tourniquet on some of the downsizing, says The Communicator magazine from PEF. "The positive budget changes include a moratorium on psychiatric-center bed reductions, the creation of state-operated transitional facilities, enhanced oversight of community-based programs, and development of 'mobile mental-health teams' to service children in state youth facilities." But this is where PEF mental health workers face the same dilemma as the Milwaukee County workers of the WFNHP. Public facilities are transitioning to community services but ignoring the inpatient staff services in the meantime. The New York budget calls for maintaining the same number of patients in the state psychiatric centers while dropping the number of staff to work with them. PEF notes that members at the state psychiatric centers "already are struggling to care for patients who increasingly tend to be younger, more violent and substance abusers." The PEF Web site address is www.pef.org.