: Bloomberg’s Budget CUNY, Homeowners Win; Queens Library May Lose

Six months before Mayor Michael Bloomberg asks voters to spend their vote on him, the Republican mayor told the mostly Democratic city how he wants to spend its money.
The $49.7 billion election year budget has a $3.2 billion surplus, and calls for more spending than cutting.

The spending includes a $400 tax rebate for homeowners, $1 million to boost the NYPD’s e-mail system, $17 million to create a park at the site of the old Elmhurst Gas Tanks, and $25 million for a new police precinct on Staten Island.

Cuts include $7.7 million from the Queens Borough Public Library system, which already eliminated weekend hours at 44 of its 63 libraries. Also, as the head of the teacher’s union noted, “There is not a single penny for teachers, police officers, firefighters or other municipal workers.”
While a gentler than usual budget negotiation is expected this year, one analyst from the non-partisan Citizen’s Budget Commission said the real problem is around the corner.

“Next year, the city faces a $4.5 billion budget gap,” said CBC Executive Director Elizabeth Lynam. “What that means is right away, as soon as the fiscal year starts, they’re going to start thinking about how to close it.”

Taxes
“The difficult choices, fiscal prudence and the sacrifices New Yorkers made have paid off,” Bloomberg said in his budget address, referring to the 18.5 percent property tax increase from 2002.

To offset that increase, the mayor again proposed giving one- and two-family homeowners a $400 tax rebate.

To receive it, homeowners must register for the School Tax Relief (STaR). Those who applied for STaR last year do not need to re-register. Those who did not register for STaR can do so by calling 311, or visiting www.nyc.gov/finance.
This year, Bloomberg expects to send rebates to 660,000 homeowners.

Also, the Mayor wants the City to lift the sales tax on clothing costing less than $110 by June 1, ahead of schedule.

Mayoral critics, including Finance Committee Chairman David Weprin (D-Hollis) said the City Council would seek to double the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Currently, parents who have two or more children and, combined, earned $15,499 or less in 2004 can get $215 back through the EITC. Parents with one child, earning less than $15,499 can get $130; those with no children are eligible for $20. For more information, call 311.

Public Safety
Although Bloomberg has not reached contract deals with the NYPD and FDNY, the mayor is looking to spend millions on upgrading technology and facilities for both.

The FDNY is slated to get $11 million for personal safety ropes, the kind experts say could have been used when six fireman jumped out of a fourth-floor window in a burning Bronx apartment building, killing two of them.

Another $1.3 million is earmarked to “increase the diversity and minority recruitment,” the mayor said.

In the budget, $157 million will be spent on renovating six police stations. The only one of those precincts slated for renovation in Queens is the 110th Precinct in Jackson Heights, according to an NYPD spokeswoman. The spokeswoman noted the renovations are part of the 10-year capital project, and not intended to reflect work done solely within this calendar or fiscal year.

Specifically for this year, the mayor proposed opening a new precinct in Staten Island, costing $25 million. Fellow Republican, Councilman Dennis Gallagher (R-Middle Village) seemed to want what Staten Islanders were getting from the mayor’s budget.

“Traditionally, they [on Staten Island] have been underserved. But…many communities in Queens deserve that same amount of treatment,” said Gallagher, who shied away from calling the new precinct for the Republican-heavy Staten Island a political maneuver.

Education
For schools, the mayor hopes to spend $13.4 million to hire 300 new school safety agents, plus an additional 27 safety agents to man a “mobile random scanning program.”

That is in addition to the $8.4 billion the mayor proposed spending on the Department of Education, which is up from the $7.6 billion the city spent last year on the city’s 1.1 million public school children.

To make room for more students, the mayor earmarked $1.3 billion for capital projects this year, part of his $13.7 billion, 10-year capital project to build 65,000 new seats by 2009.

Translation services and English Language Learner classroom libraries are slated to get $2.8 million; and an additional $7.1 million is set aside for teacher mentoring programs.

Higher Education
The mayor proposed spending $157.4 million on capital projects at the City University of New York (CUNY), the largest in the University’s history. That includes $5.9 million at LaGuardia Community College. Also, the Vallone Scholarship for CUNY-bound students is fully funded.

“Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed capital budget will infuse more than $157.4 million in new city funding for new science laboratories, classrooms, research facilities, student computer laboratories and long needed renovations and health and safety improvements,” said CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein. “This is in addition to the more than $166 million in re-appropriated City funding for a total of $323.9 million. These new funds will be matched by the State—a total of $569 million investment—the first large infusion of capital dollars for our community colleges in more than a decade.”

Goldstein added that the mayor’s actions would greatly enhance the learning environment on CUNY campuses and send a signal of support as the University modernizes programs and services.

The mayor’s initiative, when added to the expanded State capital budget, provides $1.983 billion in support for CUNY’s senior and community colleges throughout all five boroughs and “creates a capital program that will dwarf any capital program this University has had in its history,” Goldstein added.

Quality of Life
The mayor trumpeted his administration’s pothole-filling prowess earlier this year, noting 600,000 have already been filled. He proposed $5.3 million more for supplemental trash basket collections, and $1 billion to resurface 8,000 lanes of city streets.

Bloomberg also noted he’s trying to smooth out overdevelopment, with at least 35 neighborhood rezoning projects “in the pipe work,” as he worded it in a slide presentation available online.

Although he purchased the property for the Elmhurst KeySpan Park for $1 from KeySpan Energy, there is another $17 million proposed to convert the 6.5-acre property from a potentially contaminated site into a recreational area.
Other recreational areas slated for money are the Queens Museum of Art ($25 million) for their expansion and $28 million for the redevelopment at Jamaica Station.

Queens Public Libraries were not as well funded.

“We’re still assessing the service impact of the proposed cuts,” said Jimmy Van Bramer, a spokesman for the Queens Borough Public Library. Although the mayor proposed cutting $7.7 million this year, he, and the Council, not only fully funded the libraries last year, but also gave them $2 million more. “We’re hopeful that the City Council, working with the mayor, will restore all the cuts,” he said.

After examining the budget’s impact on Queens, Borough President Helen Marshall said, “We are halfway home and working with the City Council we hope to reach the goal line.”

The City Council is expected to discuss all aspects of the budget and vote on it one piece at a time between now and the deadline of June 15. The budget goes into effect on July 1.