The threatened Community Board budget cuts, which would have been small in the scheme of things, yet serious to bodies with tiny budgets, have been avoided. Per an email from CB6 District Manager Craig Hammerman, here are some details:

The budget that was adopted by the City Council this past Sunday night does not include any cuts to the Community Boards. The City Council restored all of the money that the Mayor had proposed cutting from the Community Boards’ budgets. Just a reminder, the Mayor proposed an 8% cut to the CB’s budgets, which would have amounted to $16,000 per Board out of its $200,000 annual budget. All tolled, the savings was less than a million dollars ($16,000/CB x 59 CB’s = $944,000) out of a $59.1 billion budget, or 0.0016 % of the total City budget. This was not an effort to save money – the savings were insignificant compared to the size of the City’s budget; this was a direct assault on the Community Boards, and the community’s voice in government. Fortunately, our institution was spared. For now, at least.

The Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget did confirm this morning that our fiscal year 2009 budgets will remain in tact. However, they also added that the Mayor’s proposed cuts still exist as taking effect in fiscal year 2010 and beyond. This means that if the Mayor does not change his fiscal year 2010 budget, we’ll have to do the same thing next year and fight to defend our budget. We have some time to convince the Mayor of the value of a strong community voice in government. His 2010 Executive Budget isn’t due out until January 2009.

Until next year, then.