Brad Hoylman Asks Community Boards How To Use $1.5M In Funds

MANHATTAN, NY — Local community boards will have a greater say in how $1.5 million in state funds will be spent in State Sen. Brad Hoylman's district, the state lawmaker announced Thursday.

Six community boards in the Manhattan Democrat's district will help make recommendations to the senator on what capital projects to bankroll in his district.

Inspired by City Council's participatory budgeting process, Hoylman told Patch, "Why recreate the the wheel here?"

"We already have community boards who are doing this work already and as a former community board member and chair [of CB 2], I think it's exciting to empower them in my senate district to help identify these important budget priorities," said Hoylman, a Democrat who represents the East and West Villages, Stuyvesant Town, Chelsea, Hell's Kitchen, and the Upper West Side.

Hoylman said he's looking for expertise on how to allocate capital funds and there's "no better way than going directly to community boards who, at this juncture of the year, actually are compiling their district needs and prioritizing capital expenditures."

The Community Board Budgeting process, as he calls it, will ask community boards to vote on a resolution recommending up to five capital projects in each district through the boards' existing yearly process to determine the district's needs.

Funds for each community board would total $250,000 with projects costing at least $50,000.

Community boards 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 would participate.

"Too often, Community Boards' yearly budget priorities remain unfunded or postponed," CB 4's chair Burt Lazarin said in a statement. "This project will help accomplish important local community projects."

Each project would be funded through the State and Municipal Facilities Grant Program and administered by the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York.

Details about submission and eligibility guidelines will be provided to community boards in the coming weeks.

Projects must be owned by:

• New York State Agencies and Authorities
• New York City
• Public Benefit Corporations, including the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation
• Independent Not-for-Profit Higher Education Institutions
• State University & City University of New York, including Community Colleges
• New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)
• Public Schools
• Public Libraries
• Public Park conservancies
• Fire Departments
• Schools for the Blind and Deaf
• Private Schools for students with disabilities