WNYC: Mayor Proposes $68.7B Budget
By Bob Hennelly and Brigid Bergin
After school programs and childcare cuts continued to take a hit in the mayor’s revised budget. If funding is not restored, nearly 50,000 slots for kids will be lost, child advocates said. The Mayor’s office countered that the number of slots lost will be just above 41,500.
Soledad Hiciano, executive director of the Community Association of Progressive Dominicans, joined dozens of others on the steps of city hall following the budget address to protest the reduction. ”The majority of the people that you see up here today will not have a job come September. That also adds up,” Hiciano said. The City Council could still save some of these programs but advocates say restorations are rarely 100 percent. In 2009, advocates say there were more than 137,000 childcare and after school slots in the city. This year, the number is just over 94,000.
Read more at: http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/wnyc-news-blog/2012/may/03/mayor-present-executive-budget-shows-city-revenue-not-growing-predicted/
