Seeks Budget Shifts
Council Out to Help Schools, Libraries

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn called last week for restructuring Mayor Bloomberg's $57.1 billion proposed budget and an additional $61 million in funding for universal pre-kindergarten, health-care services, housing subsidies and library hours.

CHRISTINE QUINN: Seeks to tweak spending.

Most of Ms. Quinn's proposals adhere closely to the Mayor's planned budget, but the increase in pre-k money, both for more full-day slots and for an increase in staff salaries, comes after extensive lobbying by education advocates.

Cuts DOE Bureaucracy

The budget builds on Ms. Quinn's previous proposals for a renters' tax credit of $300 and establishing 10 primary comprehensive health-care clinics in high-needs neighborhoods. It also takes a swipe at the Department of Education, looking to axe funds from its central administration.

"I don't expect there to be conflict," said Ms. Quinn, speaking April 5 to a packed room at the Chatham Square Library in Chinatown. "The Council and the Bloomberg Administration have been partners in the budget process in ways Councils and Mayors have not been in the past."

LETITIA JAMES: Focus on pre-kindergarten.

The Council's proposal would add $10 million to the Department of Education in the coming year, with $7 million to expand 2,100 half-day pre-k slots to full-day. Education advocates and DOE officials have testified at state and city hearings that there is a lack of full-day pre-k classes and that their educational benefits are much-needed.

Last year, the Council proposed and the city added funding to convert 2,200 half-day pre-k slots to full-day. There are currently 45,363 pre-k slots, according to a Council report. (DOE officials have slightly different figures: 47,794 total slots, with 12,610 at full-day.)

Would Boost Salaries

About $3 million would be spent on staff retention, increasing salaries and professional development in pre-k programs in community-based-organizations where wages are significantly lower than in programs housed in public schools. The Council's proposal would increase the staff development allocation by $1 million per year through 2011.

Ms. Quinn also noted that whereas last year's 2,200 slots all went to public schools, some of the 2,100 new full-day slots would be housed in CBOs, a measure that could help unionized day-care centers that have been struggling to maintain their enrollment.

"It's really important to get the UPK slots to those centers that are struggling," said Brooklyn Councilwoman Letitia James after Ms. Quinn's speech.

The proposed budget also adds $416,000 for a project anchored by the Low Income Investment Fund to help existing day-care centers upgrade and expand to meet the need for childcare for toddlers and infants, as the older children who used to populate the centers move into school-based programs.

More Aid to Classrooms

The Council's budget response also proposes a reallocation of $17.9 million within DOE's budget. Noting that the central administration headcount increased by 749 positions between fiscal year 2003 and 2006, Ms. Quinn said an unspecified budget line for $5.6 million plus $12.3 million for the Panel for Educational Policy, an appointed advisory board, should be re-directed to classrooms.

"It's not quite the educational policy powerhouse we thought it might be," Ms. Quinn said, referring to PEP. "We're not sure they need 12 to 14 staff people."

The Council's budget response is laid out each year in an effort to get its priorities included in the Mayor's executive budget, slated to be released in May. Negotiations will follow with a final budget adopted in June.

The Council would also phase in funding to allow libraries to open six days a week, at a cost of $42.7 million over three years.

Ms. Quinn gave a Power Point presentation showing an increase in overall wages, but noted that median income fell 6.3 percent since 2002, when adjusted for inflation. With half of city households making less than $44,000 a year, she said a series of housing reforms were necessary.

The Council would add $5 million to raise income caps on a home-owner program that helps with down payments and closing costs, allowing families of four making between $56,700 and $92,138 to access the funds.

An additional $50 million over two years would go to property owners to fix up run-down Federal housing units, as long as the owners promised to keep the apartments within affordable housing guidelines.

Ms. Quinn noted several times that the city's economic growth was expected to slow in the next few years. She said the programs added by the Council were needed for New Yorkers who have been left out of the boom.