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Wall Street Journal: Bloomberg’s Senior Centers Plan Resisted
By Michael Howard Saul June 4, 2011 Original available here (subscription required) The City Council may block Mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan to open 10 new mega-senior centers, with Speaker Christine Quinn and others declaring Friday it makes little sense when the mayor is seeking more than $40 million in cuts to existing centers and senior services. As negotiations intensify over the city's proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, Ms. Quinn questioned the mayor's fiscal priorities as they relate to the elderly. During an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Friday, she called his proposal on seniors "completely illogical." "I, as much as anybody, want senior centers to be as top notch and as 21st century as possible," Ms. Quinn said. "But I don't understand the planning logic of defunding a quarter of the funding that runs the senior centers...while simultaneously proposing to create new quote, unquote innovative ones." Marc LaVorgna, a spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg, said the mayor stands by his budget proposal. "Dollars are tight and we made a proposal that we think makes the best use of resources and will most effectively serve senior citizens," he said. Still, Mr. LaVorgna said, "The entire budget is subject to negotiation and we're in that negotiation with the council, and we expect, as happens every year, there will be some changes in the budget." Council Member Jessica Lappin, who heads the committee that oversees services to the elderly, said the mayor's budget proposal slashes, in total, $44 million to elderly New Yorkers. At least 17 existing centers, and probably more, would be shuttered if the council were to adopt Mr. Bloomberg's proposal as recommended. The council agreed to close dozens of underperforming centers last year. In testimony before the council Friday, Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, commissioner for the city Department for the Aging, said the 10 new "innovative" centers will have "vibrant programming" and are intended to be "national models of excellence." In a blistering tirade directed at Ms. Barrios-Paoli, Council Member Domenic Recchia, the finance chairman, bellowed, "Why [don't] you stick up for the existing senior centers and the programs that are working?" "Why will you not do that?" he shouted. "Answer the question." "I really have nothing to say," she said, calling Mr. Recchia's questioning "unfair." "You're telling the people of City of New York you have nothing to say," Mr. Recchia responded. "Very sad day." |
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