NEW YORK— The city lost around $4.5 billion because of Hurricane Sandy. Plus, hundreds of millions of dollars in federal school aid and taxi permit sales also didn’t materialize.
To grapple with the loses and not have to raise already high taxes, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s 2014 preliminary budget proposes cutting $217.9 million in essential children’s services, such as child care, after school programs, runaway and homeless youth services, and mental health treatment.
Jennifer March-Joly of the Citizen’s Committee for Children (CCC) hopes that as budget season begins to hit its stride, parents and citizens alike will look to their elected officials for help.
The way March-Joly sees it, the city’s children are already suffering and don’t need further cuts.
New York City is home to 1.7 million children, a number that exceeds the population of many large metropolises, including Philadelphia. Keeping track of the city’s children and monitoring their wellbeing from infancy to adolescence is a lofty job, but an important one.
