By Benjamin Ames, Staff Reporter
When Mayor Rudolph Giuliani suggested his latest budget cuts last week, he targeted the Department of Youth Services once again -- this time proposing to cut $19 million from its budget, in addition to the $9 million he had cut in November.
Eddie Ortiz, a youth services counselor, is still trying to cope with the first round of cuts. He works for Batances VI, a Melrose after-school program sponsored by the Bronx Betterment Committee. Three weeks ago, he had to postpone a basketball tournament because there was no money to run it.
"We couldn't afford the uniforms or the referees," explained Sandra Robinson, director of Batances VI. It's a popular; more than 850 people are in the program, according to Robinson.
Batances VI provides free activities for children 9 to 18, including workshops on issues like health and sexuality, athletics and a monthly cultural field trip.
While the bulk of the money to support Batances VI comes from the Department of Mental Health, the funding for certain programs, like the basketball tournament, comes from Youth Services. In exchange for this city funding, Batances VI guarantees that at least 51 percent of those enrolled in its programs live in city housing projects.
The mayor has offered no substitute programs. "We hope that community groups will seek private funding to replace the funding that was lost," said Steve Graham, a spokesman for the mayor.
The state was scheduled to contribute $10 million to the youth services department's 1995 budget request, leaving the city a bill for $56 million. Before now, the most Giuliani had offered to pay was $47 million, but in the current budget the mayor has lowered that figure to $28 million, according to Graham.
Frank Jones has worked at the Cadet Corps, a youth services organization in Morrisania, for 34-and-a-half years. "Some of the November cuts have been restored, but not enough," he said.
Jones was pessimistic about replacing city funding with private donations to community-based organizations. "The private sector is drying up, along with the rest of the economy," he said, "It's pretty bleak."
But the Youth Services Department is continuing to accept new applications, called requests for proposals, or RFPs, instead of paying off the old ones first. "We'll continue to solicit RFPs until the final budget is in," said Tim Walen, the department spokesman.