PUBLISHED BY MOSHOLU PRESERVATION CORPORATION

Local Groups Thrown Budget Lifesaver

By HEATHER HADDON

After a particularly harrowing budget season, the city has finally settled on a 2004 expense budget that spares most of the devastating cuts to services that were initially proposed. Local organizations survived relatively unscathed, though most are facing flat or decreased funding.

With an $8 billion gap last April, the city's largest since the 1970s fiscal crisis, Mayor Bloomberg proposed scores of cuts to core city services and programs. But a combination of tax increases and a favorable state aid package helped alleviate much of the budgetary burden.

Through weeks of negotiations with the City Council, much of the $600 million in cuts to services were rescinded. 

As a result, libraries will still be open five days a week, 2,300 daycare slots were restored, paraprofessionals will remain in most elementary school classrooms, and garbage will be collected twice a week. Curbside plastic recycling was reinstituted this month, and glass recycling will return next year. 

To the relief of advocates, millions of cuts slated for youth programs were scrapped. "We're thrilled," said Vidhya Ananthakrishnan of the Neighborhood Family Services Coalition, a youth advocacy organization. "No one expected that every youth program would be fully restored -- the Beacons in particular."

The Beacon program, which provides after-school activities for thousands of city youth, could have been shortchanged by $10 million. "The Beacons in particular would have been devastated by the cuts," Ananthakrishnan said.

Though things will be "somewhat chaotic," as Ananthakrishnan said, funds should flow to providers shortly. Locally, the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center's Beacon program at MS 80 on Mosholu Parkway is fully intact financially, according to Don Bluestone, the Center's executive director.

Many cuts to local housing agencies, such as West Bronx Housing, a Norwood nonprofit that provides services such as eviction prevention and tenant mediation, were also staved off. "All our funding was restored through a combination of good luck and good organizing," said Sally Dunford, the agency's executive director. To save the organization from thousands of dollars in cuts, residents sent over 500 letters to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and elected officials. 

"HPD said, 'Can't you stop?'" Dunford said. But they didn't stop until the organization's Community Consultant grant was restored. Cuts from HPD and other agencies West Bronx relies on, such as the Department for the Aging, were rescinded just in time. "Two staff members had pink slips in their hands," Dunford said. 

But with $400 million of budget cuts enacted, area services weren't entirely spared. A $200 stipend for teachers to buy school supplies was halved, and the budget for new school construction and renovation was decreased.

The New York Botanical Garden, while not grappling with the 38 percent cut initially proposed, is still left with an 18 percent reduction to their city funding - totaling $1 million. "It's an unusual situation to be relieved by a $1 million cut," said Lisa Stillman, director of Media Relations at the Garden. "But we are thankful that the draconian cuts aren't happening."

Initially, the Garden considered closing 100 acres of land (40 percent of its total acreage). With the smaller cuts, they are weighing different, though still painful, options. "We are trying to cut things that don't diminish the visitor experience," Stillman said. 

The list of proposed money-savers is no picnic: reductions in programs for families and schoolchildren, cuts to the Green Up program (which assists Bronx community gardens), scrapping a fall exhibit, and reduced marketing and maintenance. "We just won't be able to offer as much," Stillman said.

But these reductions come on the heels of a more general funding squeeze for many city institutions, especially since Sept. 11. "We're all tightening our belts," Dunford said. Her agency's funding has been flat for years now, despite inflation. "I haven't given my staff raises in two years, and I haven't taken a raise in four years," she said. 

Cultural institutions like the Garden have endured decreased funding since 1999, 
according to Stillman. As a result, the Garden was forced to raise its admission. (As of  last month, access to the grounds costs $6 for the general public and $5 for Bronx residents.) Membership dues were also hiked.

Many agencies are also pinched by the larger recession as private contributions continue to plummet. A special emergency fund at West Bronx Housing was eliminated this year after private funding was pulled. "We're hoping to collect donations for the emergency fund, which helps clients with food or when Con Ed gets shuts off," Dunford said.

The Garden is even more burnt by the recession. According to Stillman, a sliding stock market diminishes their endowment, the business slump affects their corporate support, and individuals don't have as much to give. "We call it the perfect storm," she said. "It's when everything goes wrong at the same time."