The City Council has negotiated a deal with the Bloomberg administration to avoid mid-year budget cuts to core services, from case management for seniors to shelter beds for homeless youth, as well as to defer increases in recreation center fees and parking meter rates. This deal only applies to the current fiscal year, which ends in June.
By proposing alternative cuts, such as a reduction in the Department of Education’s private contracting budget, the Council was able to:
- Defer proposed nighttime fire company closures
- Restore funding for nearly 200 ACS staff positions in the areas of child welfare and child protective services
- Fully restore case management services for seniors
- Fully restore runaway and homeless youth programs and preserve the number of available slots in other afterschool programs
- Defer parking meters increases above 86th Street and outside of Manhattan
- Defer the doubling of recreation center membership fees
The City still faces a $2.4 billion deficit for the next Fiscal Year and the Bloomberg administration is already proposing over a billion dollars in cuts for Fiscal Year 2012 (which begins in July). Melissa strongly maintains her position that the only way to fully address these recurring budget deficits is to ask thewealthiest New Yorkers to put in their fair share through progressive taxation.
