Councilman David G. Greenfield (D-Brooklyn) played an instrumental role in restoring funding for many important programs and services in the Fiscal Year 2013 New York City budget. Last night, Greenfield was present at City Hall as Mayor Bloomberg and Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced a deal that capped weeks of negotiations and will be voted on at Thursday’s Council meeting.
Programs including child-care, early-childhood education, senior services, libraries and neighborhood fire companies faced crippling cuts in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed budget. In the weeks since, Greenfield played a key part in the negotiations in his role as co-chair of the New York City Council’s Brooklyn Delegation and as Chairman of the Council’s Senior Centers Committee. Ultimately, after days of negotiations, the City Council was able to restore much of the necessary funding for these programs.
“All our hard work has paid off with the restoration of these vital programs. The Mayor’s proposed cuts would have crippled libraries, senior programs and child-care. Thanks to the leadership of Speaker Christine Quinn and Finance Chair Domenic M. Recchia, Jr. we were able to avert all of these devastating cuts without raising taxes. I am pleased to have successfully fought on behalf of residents and families throughout my district and New York City,” said Greenfield.
Specifically, the budget agreed upon last night by the New York City Council and Mayor Bloomberg includes nearly $400 million in funding restorations. This includes nearly $150 million in restorations to the Mayor’s cuts to vital child-care services and the Out of School Time program. Instead of losing 47,000 child-care and after-school slots, these programs will be expanded next year by 4,000 new seats. In addition, $59 million was restored to keep 20 fire companies open, along with $90 million in funding for public libraries to maintain current levels of service, a $50 million restoration for cultural institutions and a full restoration plus an increase for senior services.
Now that the broad strokes of the budget are complete, Greenfield is working on the details including securing direct funding for outstanding charitable groups, schools and parks in his district. To that end, as reflected by his Twitter account, @NYCGreenfield, Greenfield was in the office until 4 a.m. Tuesday morning working through the details of the budget to benefit his constituency.
“I want to thank the thousands of New Yorkers who sent a message to the administration that these cuts were unacceptable. Once again, we proved that by working together we can fight City Hall – and win,” Greenfield concluded.
(YWN Desk – NYC)
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One Response
This is why I voted for Greenfield. Last week he was the only elected official who came to the scene to resolve the black-out in Boro Park and was there until 3:30am.
This week he stays in the office until 4am to fight for us. This man is NOT a politician. He is a world-class askan and we are lucky to have him representing us.
Thank you, R’ Duvid!