The New York Times - June 16, 1983

The attacks on Mr. Reagan's economic and military policies at the conference meeting here led to a partisan fight that included some Democratic defections. The final vote on the hunger-and-spending resolution was 53 to 44, with several mayors abstaining.

The conference also agreed before ending its meeting today that new funds, and not money already budgeted, should be allocated to battle the acquired immune deficiency syndrome illness, or AIDS.

State-Local AIDS Effort Urged

The conference unanimously adopted a resolution calling for members and other state and local officials to promote research to combat the often-fatal breakdown of the body's immune system. AIDS has been found primarily among homosexuals in the nation's larger cities.

Passage of the resolution came after Margaret M. Heckler, Secretary of Health and Human Services, promised the mayors that the AIDS problem would be the No. 1 health priority of her agency.

She said legislative authority was being sought to spend $12 million in Federal money. But she said the money would come from existing programs, possibly by eliminating wasteful spending.

Some mayors feared federally financed programs essential to their cities, many of which do not have an AIDS problem, might be cut to provide additional funds.

Needs of Homeless Noted

On hunger, the mayors said, "Unemployment over the past year has reached levels not seen since the years of the Great Depression. There are increasing numbers of homeless and hungry people people in the nation's cities, due principally to record high unemployment and cuts in Federal funds."

"Many Americans do not have enough food to eat," the mayors said. "It is expected that many people in the nation's cities will continue to need food and shelter, or at least until unemployment declines significantly."

The conference also argued, "In periods of national economic distress the Federal Government has a responsibility to help local governments provide productive employment aimed at meeting unmet needs, both human and physical."

The mayors sought an emergency program to provide food and shelter for jobless victims of the recession.

Administration Policies Assailed

Although the hunger resolution placed the blame for the problem on the recession and Administration policies, the fight came on another resolution, which suggested changing those policies.

The resolution on "national priorities" said the cities "are in desperate need for Federal action which generates jobs for their residents and eases the economic plight of the poor and those on fixed incomes."

As a first step toward meeting this need, the resolution asked Congress and the Administration "to restrain the precipitous buildup in the military budget."

The most hotly debated provision asked Congress to postpone the 10 percent cut in Federal income taxes scheduled July 1, the third installment in the economic recovery program proposed by Mr. Reagan and approved by Congress in 1981.

Mayor George Israel of Macon, Ga., chairman of the mayors' Republican caucus, said that since the cut was already in the law, repeal or delay "is nothing short of a tax increase."

Mayor James Inhofe of Tulsa, Okla., another Republican leader in the floor fight, said the tax cut program deserved a chance. But Mayor Lee Alexander of Syracuse, N.Y., chairman of the Democratic caucus, said the resolution was "an attack on our national deficit of $250 billion."

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