The cuts are staggering and will negatively impact the lives of millions of New Yorkers. But in places like Brooklyn, where the city has a $3.5 to $4 billion deficit and accompanying cuts to social programs across the board will hit hardest, lawmakers are overwhelmed and running out of options. Not that they are about to throw up their hands and give up, but they are quickly running out of answers for a community that now suffers from a number of problems that have an impact on every facet of life in the borough.
“In my district I’m facing serious cuts to the health budget of the seven hospitals that are in the district. These cuts will impair and undermine the quality of health care that the uninsured and poor will get. We’re looking at a $200 million health care cut, the range and depth of which you cannot imagine,” said State Senator Carl Andrews of Brooklyn’s 20th Senate District.
Andrews is also deeply preoccupied with Republican Governor George Pataki’s proposed cuts to education. He said that he started a community education and awareness program to help bring people together and pass on invaluable education information.
One such educational forum convened by Sen. Andrews’ office was held recently at Prospect Park in Brooklyn. A large cross-section of the community attended, as did a number of elected officials, including State Senators Velmanette Montgomery and Kevin Parker, Assemblyman James Brennan and City Councilmember Yvette Clarke. Also present was Borough President Marty Markowitz.
“The cuts to youth and community development are indeed very heavy. For example, the beacon programs will take a $4.7 million hit, the City Council’s Discretionary Funds that allowed members to help local community-based organizations will take a $3.2 million cut, and key programs like the Youth Development/Delinquency Prevention will be saddled with a $217,000 cut. All these add up to real pain for our community,” said Councilmember Yvette D. Clarke.
State Sen. Kevin Parker said that the pain for the community was also reflected in the State’s $12 billion budget deficit and the $4 billion in cuts, $4 billion in borrowing, $1.4 billion in tax and fee increases, and the $2.6 billion in spending freezes among other actions. Parker, senator of Brooklyn’s newly created 21st District, said that these cuts included $1.4 billion in elementary and secondary education, and $1.1 billion in health care.
“These cuts will be really felt by poor and working class New Yorkers who rely on the public schools system to educate their children. One result of the education cuts will be larger class sizes and compromises in school security. Simultaneously the cuts to higher education will make tuition nearly impossible for working and middle class New Yorkers seeking higher education and will be heaviest on the working poor,” Parker said.
Accompanying these woes a six percent increase in unemployment with more than 160,000 jobs lost in New York since September 11th. There are now 2.95 million New Yorkers with no health insurance a figure that is expected to rise steeply by July 1, 2003. What this means is that cash-strapped municipal hospitals like Kings County Hospital Center in Brooklyn will see more and more people using the emergency rooms as clinics. This inability to pay for care will also stretch the State’s Bad Debt and Charity Pool that reimburses these hospitals for providing care to the indigent.
“We’re seeing the worst fiscal crisis in New York State in 60 years. This new administration in Washington has taken only two years to move from record surpluses to deficit spending that has had a domino effect on all states in the union. Since 2001, we’ve last nationally a total of 2.3 million jobs and a corresponding drop in real earnings. So states are now forced to cut programs, eliminate jobs, and tap into rainy day funds,” said Sen. Andrews.
Some 44 states will be facing budget deficits totaling between $71 to $87.8 billion for fiscal 2004 in a situation that many have called the “most dire fiscal situation since World War II.” In fact, one-third of all nursing homes in New York State now face bankruptcy in the state’s worst fiscal crisis since the mid-1970s. And, as an opening salvo of things to come, the recently announced bus and subway fare hikes will further cut into the real wages of working class New Yorkers as both city and state ponder more and more layoffs.
Since 2001 (the year that President George Bush took office) New York State’s unemployment rate has increased by 40 percent with no signs of abating. In 2003, nearly 6.1 percent of low-income children (below 200 percent of poverty index) have no health insurance. At the same time, New York City faces one of its worst housing crises in its history, which is having a severe impact on poor and at-risk communities.
“This housing crisis is particularly hard on seniors with fixed incomes. The cumulative effects of these cuts and reductions in programs is increased hardships on the very people who are already shouldering a disproportionate amount of the suffering. We will continue to seek creative ways out of this crisis by dialogue with the community and by a proactive approach to these cuts and reductions,” said City Councilmember Yvette Clark.
She said that these creative and innovative approaches might include a “reeducation of one less sanitation pickup a week in exchange for an after school program.” And Sen. Andrews said that all elected officials in Brooklyn must come together to work towards common solutions to these problems.
“We’re all going to hurt. It’s not about my district alone, but Kevin’s and John’s [Sen. John Sampson] and Velmanette’s. The problems that I face in my district are similar to those that they face and the same is true about in the City Council and the Assembly. So it makes sense to come together to find solutions to common solutions to these problems,” Sen. Andrews told CaribNews.
