| Bloomberg’s Budget Totals $185 Million in Cuts |
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| Friday, 03 February 2012 08:16 |
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Mayor Michael Bloomberg added $25 million in new cuts for youth programs, early intervention and family shelters as he announced his Executive Budget for FY2012-13 yesterday – bringing the total proposed loss to human services to an estimated $185 million. Programs for children, youth and families take the biggest hits -- $42 million each for child care and youth services programs, $5.8 million for juvenile justice and $4.6 million for child welfare services. Homelessness and supportive housing programs were cut by $33.6 million. There were also cuts of approximately $25 million each for the aging and health/mental hygiene sectors. Most of the total damage, according to the Human Services Council of New York (HSC) represents either cuts announced in November or the beginning of this year’s “budget dance” with the City Council. “As expected, the proposal automatically cuts funding that was restored by the City Council in the adopted budget last year,” says HSC, which puts that tab at $154.4 million. Bloomberg carried over $5 million in cuts from the November plan. Advocates and providers expressed considerable concern over the mounting impact which the Mayor’s proposed cuts will have on children and working families. They claimed that the Mayor’s proposed budget, coupled with other recent changes, would eliminate child care for 15,900 children, and would cut Out-of-school Time (OST) after-school programs for 25,000 children – leaving 40,900 of New York’s children and their families stranded without care. “The Mayor’s proposed cuts to children and youth services send a huge blow, potentially cracking the foundation for economic stability and safety for City’s children and families,” said Annetta Seecharran, Director of Policy & Advocacy, United Neighborhood Houses. “Over 40,000 children stand to lose access to critical services which allow parents to keep working as well as give children tools to prosper later in life. We urge Mayor Bloomberg to fully restore funding for child care and Out of School Time after-school programs. “ “For a Mayor who has staked his legacy on creating economic opportunities for low-income New Yorkers, it’s bewildering that his budget slashes the programs that set children up for success and allow working parents to keep their jobs,” said Nancy Kolben, Executive Director of Center for Children’s Initiatives. “Our children and families deserve better than this kind of double-talk. The Mayor must restore these devastating cuts to child care and after-school programs, and prioritize our city’s working families.” “The Mayor’s cuts to after-school programs sadly continues a multi-year trend of cutting programs for the children in our City that need them most,” said The Children’s Aid Society President and CEO Richard Buery. “After-school program slots have already dropped from 85,000 to 27,000 in the past three years alone. These programs keep our neediest kids on track for college graduation—the one sure pathway out of poverty. We, at Children’s Aid, are committed to working with our government, nonprofit and corporate partners to restore this critical funding.” “We are disappointed that Mayor Bloomberg has once again proposed to de-fund essential service staff in nonprofit, permanent supportive housing residences for formerly homeless people living with AIDS,” said Ted Houghton, Executive Director of the Supportive Housing Network of New York. “These dedicated and underpaid case managers keep multiply-diagnosed individuals with long histories of homelessness stably housed and connected to community-based services. The Mayor knows that by reducing these tenants’ use of expensive emergency interventions like shelters, hospitals and psychiatric centers, this program saves the City far more each year than the $5.1 million that would be saved with this cut.” “Making sure people living with HIV/AIDS have adequate housing and nutrition programs shouldn’t be a budget game for Mayor Bloomberg,” said Wayne Starks, a VOCAL-NY board member living in HASA-contracted supportive housing. “While Governor Cuomo is focused on finding healthcare savings by investing in supportive housing through the Medicaid Redesign Team process, Bloomberg is going in the opposite direction by cutting funds for these programs that keep people out of emergency rooms and nursing homes.” “We are also disappointed by HASA’s decision to delay for yet another year funding for desperately needed new supportive housing units under the NY/NY III Supportive Housing Agreement,” added Houghton. “This historic City-State initiative to create 9,000 supportive housing units is the Mayor’s signature achievement in the area of homelessness, yet HASA continues to disregard the development schedule agreed to by the City and the State. The agency has not released a Request For Proposals for new units since November 2007, and is lagging behind every other City and State agency creating supportive housing units under the agreement.” Now, advocates and providers will turn to the Council for relief. “The Fiscal 2013 Preliminary Budget released this afternoon is responsible in that it does not increase taxes or include cuts to uniformed services,” said Council Member and General Welfare Committee Chair Annabel Palmer. “In spite of the many positive components of this proposed budget, however, I do have some serious concerns regarding previously proposed cuts for Fiscal 2012 which were restored by the City Council, only to reappear in this Preliminary Budget…Areas of serious concern include both $5 million in cuts to HASA for HIV/AIDS- related services and nearly $50 million in cuts to ACS’ child care budget, as neither were baselined for Fiscal 2013. DHS’s plan to save $9 million as a result of the implementation of its shared living plan for homeless families with children is also very troublesome. I fully expect these decisions to adversely impact low-income New Yorkers who rely on these programs, making it imperative that we responsibly and effectively address these issues.” |
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