NO FIRE COMPANIES WILL CLOSE

Just got this e-mail:

By law, in good times or bad, New York City must pass a balanced budget by June 30 each year.  About two hours ago, in the worst economic times we have faced in the last 80 years, we did just that.  I am pleased to report that we passed a budget with no new taxes, and one which spares New York's most vulnerable residents from undue hardship.

I thought I would take a moment to update you on some of the main points of the City budget we just passed.

In November 2009, the City faced a projected $4.5 billion budget gap for Fiscal Year 2011, which begins this Thursday.  Even after an aggressive program of agency cuts, the use of prior years' surpluses and some of the reserves that we had set aside in better times, we were still forced to trim more than $1.5 billion from the budget.  We did so even while staving off many of the severe cuts proposed by Mayor Bloomberg.  Specifically:

--No fire companies will close, a move that saves 505 firefighters' jobs;

--The Council restored $20 million in cuts to the Cultural Institutions Group, which includes the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Jewish Heritage, New York City Center, Carnegie Hall, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Public Theater / New York Shakespeare Festival;

--202 positions in the Administration for Children's Services were saved, allowing workers to maintain the caseload levels put in place following the tragic Nixzmary Brown case; and

--Library service will be preserved at five days a week.  New Yorkers truly deserve six-day service, but this is an example of a cut that would have been much worse without action by the City Council.

Other News From the City Budget
 
As co-Chair of the Manhattan Delegation, I helped shepherd the borough's priorities in the budget and was a voice for restraint where necessary for making difficult decisions.  Even with limited funds available, we still won some important victories, both citywide and for the East Side.  Some worthy programs were not funded to the same extent as in years past, but we had successes in a number of areas.

The Adopted Expense Budget, which includes Council Members' discretionary allocations, is available here:  http://council.nyc.gov/html/releases/pdfs/FY2011.Schedule.C.pdf .  Some of the highlights include:

Education

--$2.75 million to further expand full-day universal pre-kindergarten programs
--Support for technology upgrades and renovations in East Side public schools

Senior Services

--$5.5 million for meals on wheels and senior center meals

Food and Hunger

--$2 million for city food pantries
--$1.26 million for obesity prevention initiatives
--Expanding the ability of food stamp recipients to pay by Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) at farmers markets
--$477,000 to provide food and nutrition counseling to residents with HIV / AIDS

Domestic Violence and Women's Health

--Over $3.5 million to support domestic violence prevention and empowerment initiatives in high-incidence areas
--$2.5 million to educate and counsel teenagers about domestic violence
--Reproductive health and pregnancy prevention services for uninsured and high-risk teens

Tenants

--Legal aid and advocacy for East Side tenants
--Eviction prevention services for seniors and other vulnerable populations in our area
--Education and counseling to help rent-regulated tenants maintain the affordability of their apartments

Beautification of Our Neighborhood

--Funds to support beautification projects on the Upper East Side and Turtle Bay
--Maintenance of East Side parks and flowerbeds
--Support for historic preservation efforts in Manhattan

This is just a sample -- the City budget is obviously long and complex.  Feel free to contact me for more information on any area of interest to you.

Community Announcement

*** The Vanderbilt YMCA has launched a new, free program to prevent diabetes among those at risk.  The YMCA's Diabetes Prevention Program will seek to help people with pre-diabetes achieve and maintain weight loss of at least 7 percent by eating healthy and increasing physical activity to 150 minutes a week.  Participants will meet with a trained lifestyle coach for 16 sessions to help them change their lifestyles, then meet monthly for up to a year for added support in maintaining their progress.  The program will begin the last week of July.  To enroll, participants must be diagnosed as pre-diabetic and be able to get a signed referral from their doctor.  To begin the enrollment process or get more information, contact Judy Ouziel at (212) 912-2524 or jouziel@ymcanyc.org . 

Contact Us
 
Please feel free to contact me or my  staff about any City issue, either by responding to this email, or by logging on to my website, www.garodnick.com .

Sincerely,