Community boards in the Bronx will see $42,500 added to their operating budgets starting in July.

Community Board 7, representing a chunk of the northwest and west Bronx, will now see their budget increase from $223,000 to $265,500, according to figures released by Councilman Fernando Cabrera.

Cabrera stopped by CB7’s last general board meeting to present the news. Cabrera chairs the Governmental Operations Committee which is responsible for funding community boards.

With rising costs and stringent budgets, community boards across the city have been asked to do more with less. Initially, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 2019 budget did not include any increase for community boards.

Over the years, Andrew Laiosa, chair of the Budget, Personnel and Ethics Committee at CB7, has seen these negotiations about budget increases play out between the mayor and city council. “I’ve seen this so many times, the mayor threatens to cut our budget and the city council finds a way to restore or increase it,” says Laiosa.

After hearings before Cabrera’s committee, the councilman pushed for $2.5 million to be dispersed among the city’s 59 boards. Cabrera is a former community board member of CB7 and knows firsthand the operational difficulties they face. “It is a struggle that I see in all community boards every year just trying to nickel and dime their way through,” says Cabrera.

In the yearly Statement of Community District Needs and Community Board Budget Requests for Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 that CB7 submitted to City Hall, three issues were identified as the most pressing in the district: affordable housing, quality of life (i.e., noise, graffiti, petty crime), and schools.

CB7 says there are no plans yet to determine funding because they have not convened since the announcement and these decisions are usually proposed by the chair and later discussed to reach consensus.

One potential need that Laiosa sees at CB7, as in many other boards, is for consultants specializing in data analysis. “There is now so much data related to the issues we face that we need consultants to help go through data that is dense and complex in order to understand how it can affect land use and zoning decisions,” Laiosa said.

The increase does not include any raises for existing staff, but instead is earmarked for updating technology, improving accessibility to meetings, increasing office space, hiring more staff, and improving outreach efforts to constituents. The individual boards will have discretionary power over how to best use the additional funds.

Editor’s Note: The print version of this article erroneously stated Community Board 7 would receive only $25,000.