“Seniors aren’t buying DVD players or cell phones, where there are discounts,” Weiner said. “They’re buying things they need — medicine, food — which have gone up. Today, we’re launching a petition campaign that says, ‘Heck no, we don’t want zero.’”
   Seniors have received a steady COLA increase each year since the mid-1970s, based on the rate of inflation. Although the elderly fared comparatively well last January, collecting a 5.8 percent COLA boost — the largest since 1982 — the freeze may last until 2013.
   Gulluscio, who is running for the 32nd District City Council seat against Republican incumbent Eric Ulrich, introduced the idea of a petition because he said he supports a “true COLA” for seniors based on regional factors.
   “For many seniors, Social Security is a lifeline,” Gulluscio said. “Even in this recession, the cost of living is on the rise.”
   Statistics show seniors across the country struggling to make ends meet. The poverty rate among the elderly is 18.6 percent, more than double the overall poverty rate, according to AARP. And, although New Yorkers earn one of the highest salaries in the country, the recession has hit those over 65 in NY where it hurts most.
   Medicare prescription drug plans will increase 7 percent from an average monthly premium of $28 in 2009 to $30 in 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. Likewise, food prices in the city have gone up by 1.4 percent since 2008, and seniors signing leases in rent-stabilized apartments were hit with a 6 percent increase on two-year leases this year.
   Lack of inflation in the recession may not be the only reason behind a COLA freeze, Weiner warned.
   “One of the strangest things is the notion that maybe the books have been cooked a little bit,” Weiner said. Even though actuaries don’t make a decision about COLA until October, Weiner said the White House included a line in its budget as early as February assuming zero for COLA for 2010 and 2011.
   “It makes me nervous,” he said. “How the heck would they know what it would be in 2011?”
   Suspicions aside, several bills have been proposed by various elected officials, including Weiner and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), to combat the vanishing COLA. If passed, Weiner’s COLA Fairness Act would increase Social Security benefits by 2.1 percent over the next five years.
   A second bill, currently referred to committees, is the Emergency Senior Citizens Relief Act, which Sanders introduced in the Senate. If it passes, over 55 million seniors would get a one-time additional check of $250 in 2010 instead of a COLA. The relief would be paid for by applying the Social Security payroll tax to household incomes above $250,000 and below $359,000 in 2010.