'Harsh' City Funding Cut Deprives Astoria Kids' Center Of $150K

ASTORIA, QUEENS — A reportedly punitive move by the City Council speaker to lock out several lawmakers from a new pot of city funds will deprive a beloved Astoria youth center of thousands of dollars it had been counting on, according to local leaders.

The city's new $101 billion budget passed Monday night in a 44-6 vote, with the few dissenters including City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán, who represents Astoria.

In apparent retribution for their no-votes, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams chose to lock Cabán and six of her colleagues out of a $41.6 million program known as the "Speaker's Initiative to Address Citywide Needs," which members could use to fund programs in their neighborhood, City & State reported. (Cabán said she voted against the budget because it slashed funding to public schools and increased spending on police and incarceration.)

Cabán's lockout from the speaker's initiative will have an impact on a notable neighborhood institution: the Variety Boys & Girls Club, which offers afterschool programming like swim lessons and art classes to about 4,000 children in Western Queens.

The center had expected to receive $150,000 from the speaker's initiative — money it will now need to find elsewhere, its leader told Patch.

"This is just a very harsh cut," said Costa Constantinides, the organization's CEO — and himself a former Council member, having preceded Cabán in District 22. "This definitely is a setback for us to carry out our mission, when we have less funding."

Constantinides declined to speculate on the political machinations that fueled the cut, saying he had "no idea why" the $150,000 had been lost. He noted it was the same amount that the club had received in last year's city budget.

The loss of Cabán's money now leaves Variety in an awkward spot: from the same pot of money, Variety received $75,000 from Councilmember Shekar Krishnan to expand its programming to his district in Jackson Heights. The Boys & Girls Club now must find a way to stretch itself into a new neighborhood with far less funding than it anticipated.

"They provided us funding for a Jackson Heights program that now we’ll have to figure out how to fund when we’re at a $150,000 loss," Constantinides said. "I’m not attacking anyone, but every time you receive a funding cut, you’re disappointed."

Council Speaker Adrienne Adams's office did not immediately return a request for comment. The speaker told City & State on Monday that the funds were "not about any single council member," adding that "Every New Yorker benefits from this budget."

Cabán's district will still benefit from thousands of dollars in discretionary funds allocated through the regular city budget, which includes the winning projects from her participatory budgeting vote as well as other neighborhood improvements.

Constantinides said the club would manage to make up the gap somehow, while Cabán told Patch that she hoped Council leadership would reconsider the decision.

"My priority is ensuring that vital organizations like Variety Boys & Girls Club are fully funded and do not have to let go of staffers or scale back programming," Cabán said in a statement.

"The District 22 families that rely on these programs need and deserve our support. I look forward to working with Council leadership to reverse these cuts to critical services and pillars of our community, so that we can make our city safer and healthier for all New Yorkers."

Update: On Friday, City & State amended its initial story and published a new story, reporting that the seven members were not entirely shut out of the speaker's initiative, but simply had their names removed from the budget items.

On Thursday, Speaker Adams described the lesser-than-expected funding for the Variety Boys & Girls Club as an "oversight," and pledged to resolve the issue alongside Cabán and Constantinides.

Astoria Patch will feature more coverage about the new budget's impact on Western Queens in the coming days.

Have an Astoria news tip? Contact reporter Nick Garber at nick.garber@patch.com.