All Articles Tagged "city budget"
Cultural Groups Rejoice as City Restores Proposed Cuts
(Crain’s) — After yet another year of in which local cultural institutions were threatened by proposed deep budget cuts from the city, nearly all the money was restored in the final budget for this fiscal year. The cultural institutions group—made up of all the arts groups in city-owned building ranging from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden on Staten Island—received an initial restoration of $20.5 million of its proposed $33.7 million cut. Sources say Mayor Bloomberg is going to put in an additional $10 million from discretionary funds, nearly fully restoring the CIGs funding.
For D.C., $62M Less and Abortion-Spending Ban
(Washington Post) — A House Appropriations subcommittee approved its version of the 2012 spending bill for the District on Thursday, passing along a relatively clean measure that could undergo bigger changes as it moves up the legislative ladder. The bill would cut the federal government’s payment to the city by $62 million, or 10 percent, compared with 2011. It also would ban the city from spending its own money to pay for abortion services, a provision that has angered local leaders. But it does not contain “riders” affecting the District’s ability to use local funds on needle-exchange programs or medical marijuana, nor does it affect the city’s law permitting same-sex marriage.
Unions Throw Monkey Wrench into City Budget Deal
(Amsterdam News) — The rain couldn’t dampen the spirits of the public union employees at City Hall on Tuesday afternoon. That’s what happens when you go toe to toe with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. DC37, the largest public employees union in New York City, held a rally in Lower Manhattan to protest Bloomberg’s proposed service cuts and layoffs as a means of balancing the city’s budget. Union leaders from such groups as SEIU 119, TWU Local 100 and CSEA and elected officials alike took to the stage on the Broadway side of City Hall Park to voice their displeasure with the mayor, declaring solidarity with unions everywhere. ”Instead of bringing us together to solve the serious problems confronting New York City and other cities and states throughout the country, politicians are telling working families to make all the sacrifices,” said Lee Saunders, secretary-treasury of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Reed Vetoes Money-Saving Measure
(AJC) — Mayor Kasim Reed has vetoed legislation that according to a city audit would be a step toward saving the city millions in unnecessary spending in the Atlanta Municipal Court. The City Council last Monday voted by 9-5 to reduce the court from 10 judge positions to eight after the City Auditor analyzed the courts and reported that it only needed five judges to handle the caseload. The audit, which said the cuts would save at least $2.3 million a year if judges were cut by five positions, was the latest finding the court is overstaffed — a position judges have bitterly contested. According to City Council numbers, which say it costs $870,000 a year for each judgeship, the savings would be much higher.
D.C. Budget Shirks Police Department
(Washington Examiner) — The budget approved by the D.C. Council on Tuesday jeopardizes the police department’s need for more officers in favor of raising rates for insurance companies that provide care to the poor. Just days before Tuesday’s final vote, Mayor Vincent Gray asked the council to include $32 million to raise the rates charged to the city by insurance companies that provide care to the poor. Council members said they were told by administration officials that if they didn’t act, one of the two managed care companies would be unable to stay open, leaving the city in a bind. The council approved the mayor’s request in a 7-6 vote.
Gray Picks Technology Expert to Hunt Out Wasteful Spending
(Washington Post) — Mayor Vincent C. Gray is tapping Suzanne Peck, former chief technology officer for the District and, more recently, Metro, to scrub city government of wasteful spending and to find new non-tax revenues. Gray (D) is calling the effort the “One City Performance Review,” a play on the “One City” campaign slogan that has become the theme and logo of his administration. He said Peck’s task is all about “right-focusing” the government. “In speaking to the public, I’ve stressed that we can’t afford to keep doing business as usual in hopes that our finances will dramatically improve,” Gray said in a statement.
College Park May Cut Staff
(AJC) — Nearly 25 percent of the city of College Park’s workers could lose their jobs under one scenario to balance next year’s budget. The $27.3 million budget is approximately $2 million less than last year’s, and the anticipation of lower tax revenues is forcing the city to consider more cuts. “This is the toughest challenge I’ve faced in more than 20 years of government,” City Manager William Johnson said. The city doesn’t yet have exact numbers on how many jobs could be cut or the savings. But College Park’s workforce is about 400, and 80 to 100 workers might have to be laid off under the most drastic proposal, finance director Richard Chess said at Thursday’s budget workshop.
D.C. Council Passes Budget
(Washington Informer) — The city budget that the District of Columbia Council passed recently had something for everyone to be happy with despite a floundering economy and a $322 million shortfall. The D.C. Council passed a $10 billion fiscal year 2012 budget on Wed., May 25 that went through an intense process of horse-trading and compromises. In the end, the budget was not perfect in any D.C. Council member’s view, but it was one that was workable. “The Council of the District of Columbia unanimously passed a budget that continues to provide necessary services to residents and businesses while restoring deep cuts to the critical human services that the city provides to thousands of men, women and children,” D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown said.
Empty Summer in the City for Kids Hit by Cutbacks
(AP) — A rising number of children can look forward to excruciatingly boring school breaks this year as budget crises in places such as New York, Washington, D.C., Houston and Detroit rob them of the activities and programs that have long defined summer in the city for urban youngsters. Swimming pools are being closed. Recreation centers are locking their doors. Library summer reading programs are suffering. Openings for short-term jobs have evaporated. Port Lau’s vacations of boredom ended the summer he was 14, when a city-funded program got him his first job — doing filing and clerical work at the state Supreme Court in Brooklyn. Now 18, the college freshman credits the experience with landing him a string of jobs and internships — including one for which he’ll be traveling to Germany this summer.
D.C. Council Passes Budget Without Mayor's Income Tax Hike
(Washington Examiner) — The D.C. Council approved a $5.8 billion operating budget Wednesday that did not include a proposal by Mayor Vincent Gray to raise the income tax rate on the wealthy. The unanimous vote on the budget was a big victory for Council Chairman Kwame Brown, who stitched together a budget proposal that backed up his campaign promise to not raise the income tax rate and found dollars for key human services programs the mayor had proposed to cut. Some of those programs, like one that helps low-income earners pay the rent, will have to wait until dollars become available through an expected jump in a revenue projection that comes out next month. Brown successfully held off an effort to bring back the mayor’s tax increase on households earning $200,000 or more when the measure was defeated in an 8-5 vote.
