Over the past few months, most New Yorkers have focused their attention on the public health aspects of the coronavirus. Now that all indicators show a downward trend, and the spread of the virus is relatively controlled, elected officials and community leaders are facing hard decisions on budgets for public services.

 

From Albany to City Hall to all 59 City community boards, officials are being asked to slash previously agreed budgets due to reduced revenue sources like sales taxes. Locally, Bronx Community Board 7 (CB7) is assessing what adjustments may need to be made to its budget.

 

In May, at the Board’s Budget, Personnel and Ethics Committee meeting, officials from the Department of City Planning (DCP) forewarned members to prepare for significant budget changes, since the City was, and still is, experiencing a major drop in revenue.

 

At that point, DCP was still inviting input from community boards to determine where cuts could be made with the least amount of disruption. Jorge Hernandez, a program manager at DCP said, “Community boards help influence and drive the City’s budget and a community’s input is a key component”.

 

For the 2020 Fiscal Year, community boards across the City received a $42,500 increase to their annual budgets, thanks to efforts led by Councilman Fernando Cabrera. This increase was added to the baseline budget of $288,000 that all community boards receive. Out of the larger amount, boards are expected to pay employee salaries, rent, and daily operational expenses. The increase was to be used for non-salary expenses such as events and equipment.

 

Indeed, Bronx CB7 had been looking into upgrading some of the technology it uses to connect with the community, like new laptops and iPads. District Manager Ischia Bravo acknowledged that this may no longer be possible. “The iPads, that’s wishful thinking,” she said. “I don’t know if that’s going to happen because we’re still waiting for the government rep to respond to us.”

 

This appeared to suggest that there might be a potential reversal of the recent $42,500 budget increase. Norwood News reached out to Bronx CB7 since the May committee meeting to ask if the board had yet decided where cuts might be likely. Bravo replied, “It is safe to say we will have further discussions in September”. The board held its last board meeting at the end of June and is now on summer recess until September.

 

Meanwhile, at the City level, Mayor Bill de Blasio projected that the City would lose $9 billion in tax revenue over the next two years as a result of the shutdown. He had already scaled back the City’s February budget projection of $95 billion to $89 billion in April. It was subsequently reduced to $87 billion, and the mayor had been looking at more ways to pare it down by another $1 billion, with talks of 22,000 possible employee furloughs and layoffs.

 

Finally, on Jun. 29, de Blasio announced the final budget would amount to $88.1 billion, including projected labor savings of $1 billion. He said he would work with the City’s labor unions on ways to arrive at those savings.

 

The mayor also said the City had already asked for a federal stimulus in order to meet the budget deficit, as well as a loan from Albany but that neither was forthcoming. He said the City would continue to push for both but that if, by October, they were still not forthcoming, layoffs would be inevitable.

 

In terms of budget priorities, it was announced that the NYC Care program, covering healthcare would be expanded along with the food security program. Youth summer programming will receive an investment of $115 million, and another $116 million will go to education. Social and family services will receive $134 million in the communities hit hardest by the coronavirus.

 

Following calls from Black Lives Matter protestors and supporters to defund the police, $1 billion will be shifted from the NYPD budget by canceling recruitment programs (an estimated 1,163 police officer hires), reassigning staff from administrative to patrolling duties, ceding certain functions to other agencies, and reducing overtime.

 

This falls short of what the protestors called for but the revised budget passed when voted on, on the evening of Jun. 30 by 32 votes to 17. Local elected Bronx councilmen Fernando Cabrera, Ritchie Torres, Andy King and Andrew Cohen voted in favor of it, while Mark Gjonaj and Ruben Diaz Sr voted against it.

 

On Jun. 29, The New York Times reported that according to three council members familiar with the budget, school safety officers would no longer fall under the NYPD budget, and would be transferred to the education department. The final budget included this proposal. Protestors call this creative accounting and not a true budget cut.

 

Those opposed to the cuts say they are counter-productive if the goal is to retrain police to carry out their role differently, as funding is needed to carry out that training. Others are concerned with the rise in crime and disturbances the City has seen in recent months. They fear that the proposed cuts, combined with the negative attitudes towards police will embolden criminals to carry out even more crime.

 

Back in the Bronx, different CB7 members appeared to have different views and expectations on the severity of the anticipated budget cuts. DCP warned that the board would have to reassess what the most pressing issues were in the local neighborhoods and present a compelling argument for future funding.

 

In view of these warnings, CB7 member Betty Arce, wondered how the budget approval process might affect board decisions. “We’re going to be facing real severe cuts,” she said. “There’s no doubt that we’re not going to get a lot of the things we want, so we have to be very strategic about what we must advocate for, and we need to do that as a board.”