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Members of Congress from Queens highlighted various aspects of the law, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, though job creation was a common theme.
“When the national economy catches a cold, New York City catches the flu,” Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn, Queens) said in a news release. “This bill includes a major job-creating boost at a time when New York City desperately needs it.”
Weiner broke down the job preservation in the city in an analysis released by his office. In Flushing, Corona and Bayside, 7,100 jobs will be created or saved, the study said. In Jamaica, Richmond Hill and Rosedale, the total is 7,500, as it is in Forest Hills, the Rockaways and Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn.
Other parts of Queens either were linked with sections of the Bronx in the analysis or not highlighted separately.
Weiner also said the stimulus spending should allow for the hiring of about 440 new city police officers. He based that estimate on the amount to be spent nationally, $1 billion, and the share of federal police funding New York historically has received.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office, which has struggled with tackling a projected $4.3 billion deficit in next year’s budget, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the package. But a memorandum to the mayor from the deputy mayor for operations, Edward Skyler, says the city expects to receive at least $4.5 billion in expense funding over the next two years, as well as $544 million in funds for capital projects.
Within the expected money for expenses is $1.1 billion that would be dedicated to restoring planned cuts in education financing. The mayor has said that thousands of teachers could lose their jobs due to reductions in state and city spending.
“We are optimistic that by working with our partners at the state level, we can apply this funding to existing needs at our Department of Education so we can avoid the severe headcount reductions you raised as a possibility when you presented the fiscal year 2010 preliminary budget,” Skyler said in the Feb. 17 memo, which was provided to the Queens Chronicle by a government official in another office. “However, as you know, stimulus funding for education will not contribute to closing our budget deficit for fiscal year 2010, but rather would offset the proposed state aid reduction.”
Skyler also said the city should expect:
• at least $2 billion in Medicaid funding over two years;
• $233 million for transportation projects;
• $295 million for social services including child care, food stamps, job training and the Head Start preschool program.
Despite the congressional optimism, however, there was at least one dissenting voice familiar to New Yorkers. Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani criticized the stimulus plan on television Tuesday, saying he believes it to be the most expensive single law ever enacted in the United States.
Some of what the stimulus plan should mean for New York
MEDICAID
New York City will receive at least $2 billion in Medicaid funding.
TAX CUTS
95 percent of workers everywhere will see tax breaks of up to $800.
POLICE
The city should receive enough aid to hire 440 more officers.
SCHOOL AID
An expected $1.1 billion in aid could allow the city to avoid staff cuts.
Sources: Congress, City Hall
