New York City Council Restores $2.1 Million in Funding for HIV Prevention and Infant Mortality Reduction Programs
The New York City Council, in its last session of the year, on Wednesday voted unanimously to restore about $2.1 million in funding for HIV prevention and infant mortality reduction programs to the budget for the current fiscal year, the New York Daily News reports (Lombardi, New York Daily News, 12/20). Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (R) had proposed cutting $2.6 million from HIV prevention services targeting the city's African-American and Hispanic communities and $2.2 million from an educational program designed to reduce infant mortality as part of his plan to reduce a $1.3 billion budget shortfall caused in part by expenses related to the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 12/11). The council instead voted to reduce the cut in HIV/AIDS services by $1.6 million and to cut about $1.06 million from the infant mortality program (Cooper, New York Times, 12/20). "We tried to spread the pain equitably," one negotiator explained. The council, which objected to $114 million of Giuliani's proposed cuts on the grounds that they would "damag[e] ... essential services," spent last week negotiating with officials from the mayor's office, and it was unclear whether an agreement would be reached before Giuliani and 38 of the council's members leave office on Dec. 31 (New York Daily News, 12/20).
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