LOCAL BUDGET
[From Coleman Advocates Family Budget Coalition]
During the Board of Supervisors addback process, the Supervisors added back $200,000 to the DCYF budget to restore funding for programs whose funding was cut. Unfortunately, they did not addback General Fund money—that money came from the Children’s Fund… meaning it can only be used to restore funding for programs whose original addback came out of the Children’s Fund—that is only 9 of the 31 addbacks, which is why the rest of the programs that received a 15% reduction in their addback for 2008-2009 will not have their funding restored.
Many people turned up to the Supervisor’s Hearing on the Children’s Services Allocation Plan and the proposed use of the Children’s Fund. About 15 people spoke expressing concern about the lack of public input into the decision-making process. We shared the importance of allocating the growth in the Children’s Fund in alignment with the Children’s Services Allocation Plan, our concerns with how the proposed ideas were introduced, and urged the Board to addback the $3.25 million to DCYF’s budget to be allocated through the CSAP.
The hearing took place at the Government Audit and Oversight Committee (Supervisors Peskin, Maxwell and Ammiano), for which only Peskin and Maxwell were present…Both Supervisors seemed to hear the message, but ultimately, the decision was to make no decision.
[Note: HEY’s e-Newsletter for 7.18.08 was compiled prior to the board’s 7.16.08 meeting.] The city’s DCYF Allocation Plan is the official plan to address these unmet needs through the resources of the Children’s Fund. To preserve the integrity of the Children’s Fund allocation process, we now must go back to the Budget & Finance Committee on Wednesday July 16th, 1pm and urge them to amend the resolution that will come before them and instead allocate all $3.25 million in growth of the Children’s Fund to through a DCYF RFP process according to the Allocation Plan priorities and framework established last year after an intensive planning process with significant community input. We urge the Budget Committee members to vote for his change on Wednesday. The city budget will be finalized next week.
Here are some documents to better explain the current situation:
Children’s Services Allocation Plan Amendment this is what will be heard at the Budget Committee on July 16
DCYF’s CAC (Citizen Advisory Council) Recommendations for use of the Children’s Fund
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