Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has just released his Executive Budget for New York City’s upcoming 2010 Fiscal Year which begins on July 1^st.   The Mayor described his $59.4 billion budget as the outcome of combining $3.4 billion in cumulative expenditure reductions plus $5 billion in available surpluses from prior years with revenue enhancements including a proposed increase in the City’s sales tax.  The plan also relies on a minimum of $1.4 billion in combined savings and revenues to generated through anticipated agreements with the State and organized labor including pension reform and health care cost reductions.

For human service providers and advocates, the Mayor’s budget represented simply a further piling on of additional cuts to critical programs serving the City’s most vulnerable citizens. 

In the Department for the Aging, for example, the Executive Budget added an additional $4.5 million reduction target to approximately $49 million cuts previously outlined in the Mayor’s Preliminary Budget Plan released in January.   Total funding for the Department of Youth and Community Development will decline by $81 million, despite the addition of $12 million for new youth programming in NYCHA community centers and $32 million in additional federal stimulus funding.  The Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) will see a total $198 million funding reduction.

“Mayor Bloomberg’s FY 2010 Budget threatens core programs that protect New York City’s poor and working families at a time when these New Yorkers need help more than ever,” said Nancy Wackstein, Executive Director of United Neighborhood Houses. “While we recognize that these are difficult times, a budget is a reflection of priorities; we believe the City of New York must adjust its priorities to focus on the needs of low and moderate income children, working parents, immigrants, and seniors. While we are thankful for restorations in the Executive Budget, particularly to child care, we are very concerned about cuts to core human services such as youth development programs and supportive services for older adults. These programs protect the most vulnerable New Yorkers – children and seniors – at a time when they need services the most.”

Details of how the cuts, and in some case funding increases, in Executive Budget proposal remained unclear as analysts began reviewing budget documents.   Additional details are expected to emerge early next week.

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