His plan includes cutting funds for the Administration for Children's Services by nearly 18 percent, homeless services by 17 percent, libraries by $39 million or 15 percent, cultural affairs by 15 percent and sanitation by 12 percent.

The budget also projects cutting programs for the elderly by $26 million, or 16 percent. This includes eliminating the weekend meal now available to 12,000 elderly men and women, closing seven city centers that cater to the elderly and eliminating four others that were to open shortly, and curtail their prescription drug reimbursements.

The mayor is seeking to eliminate $225 million in pension and health benefits owed to city employees and reschedule the pension funding schedule to the tune of another $275 million.

Other highlights of the budget include:

• Funding for the public schools would be cut by $354 million. Capital construction projects like building new schools would be scaled back by 20 percent.
• Legal services to help people fight evictions from their homes would be chopped.
• The city tax on cigarettes would increase from 8 cents to $1.50 per pack. Coming on top of a 39-cent state tax increase, the cost of a pack of cigarettes could rise to nearly $7 by July.
• The mayor is also floating the idea of placing tolls on bridges coming into Manhattan over the East River from Brooklyn and Queens--the Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queensboro bridges--as well as raising tolls on the nine other crossings into the city for which commuters have already been paying hefty fees.
• Parking ticket fines would increase from $55 to the $80 to $100 range. Towing fees would increase, as well as additional taxes on telephone and cell phone use.

"He's got some nerve!" stated 82-year-old Margaret Robinson, upon hearing of Bloomberg's proposed cuts to the weekend meal program for the elderly. "He has plenty to eat in his house, I'm sure. I wish I could staple his mouth shut so he couldn't eat. Then he might understand." She added that she needs the meal program because her Social Security check each month has to go to housing and medical expenses.

Those making use of this program pay just 50 cent for a decent meal that a number of elderly people make last through the weekend, noted a recent New York Times article.

The mayor is also planning to increase charges by 10 cents for breakfasts and lunches served at these centers, as well as for meals delivered to homebound people.

Cutbacks in education have propelled even middle-class parents into the streets to demand restoration of funding.

Although the state added $82 per pupil to city schools last year, the city cut $167 per pupil. In some schools the entire budget allotted for classroom expenses goes to pay teachers, leaving little or nothing for books or other items.

Meanwhile, recent figures released by the Coalition for the Homeless, show that the number of homeless children sleeping in New York City shelters rose by 29 percent last year, to a record 13,088 each night.

"The increase in children lodging nightly with their families in the city's shelter system," noted the Times, "is part of the largest one-year rise in homeless people recorded in the city since its modern shelter system began in the early 1980s. The overall increase, about 22 percent, is probably the largest since the Great Depression."

Linda Gibbs, commissioner of the city's Department of Homeless Services, agreed with these figures, saying that in January more than 31,000 people slept at city shelters. A figure far below the actual number of homeless persons in the city, who stay away from these overcrowded and unsanitary facilities.  
 
 
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