Budget cuts are never easy.
But when cost-cutting measures affect the most vulnerable among us, the questions – and answers – are far more complicated.
City Council Member Robert Jackson (D-District 7) certainly believes that is the case with the recent cuts to senior services proposed by the City's Department for the Aging (DFTA), cutbacks that would directly impact the senior centers offering services in Washington Heights and Inwood.
Jackson recently offered testimony at a public hearing in which he protested DFTA's Annual Plan Summary, a written report in which the Department shares its goals and objectives for the following fiscal year. DFTA holds hearings in each borough about its plan and solicits feedback from the public.
At the department's Oct. 21 Manhattan meeting, Jackson denounced the proposed cuts as demonstrative of the "inherent disrespect for the elderly that permeates much of our popular culture."
For the city's fiscal year 2011, DFTA's budget is projected at $271 million, a 6.6 percent decrease from 2010's $290 million budget. Federal and state funding provide DFTA with 32 and 14 percent of its budget, respectively. With more than half of DFTA's funding provided by the city, any shortfall disproportionately impacts its ability to deliver senior services.
With a citywide $3.3 billion deficit, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has called for city agencies to eliminate all "non-essentials" and cut their budgets by 5.4 percent this fiscal year and 8 percent the next. This marks the ninth time in the past three and a half years that the mayor has requested plans to close the budget gap.
DFTA's commissioner, Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, responded by proposing a reduction in case management services. These proposed cuts come after the city shut 29 senior centers – none in northern Manhattan – earlier this year and cut a number of other services, including an elder-abuse program and a healthy aging initiative.
These actions alarm many advocates for seniors, who argue that while the tough economic climate requires hard decisions, these measures create isolating and potentially dangerous circumstances for some of the poorest and less able residents of the city, just when they are most in need of assistance.
Moreover, the cuts strike many as short-sighted. Demographic trends point to a New York City population that is growing grayer faster, with aging baby boomers turning 65 this year, and increased longevity across ethnic groups.
Jackson agrees. Services for seniors that are at risk, he insists, are essential. "We better be prepared to expand, rather than reduce, senior services," he said.
The mayor and city budget officials are reviewing all recommendations from department heads, including DFTA, and no cuts have yet been finalized.
