After more than a year of planning, waiting, hoping and then celebrating the city's recently awarded federal empowerment zone, borough activists may face their most daunting challenge yet: a radically altered political climate made up of fewer sympathetic Democrats and a glut of penny-pinching Republicans.
The program, created by a Democratic Congress, was the centerpiece of President Bill Clinton's urban policy campaign platform. Some of the state's most prominent Democrats, inlcluding ex-Gov. Mario Cuomo and ex-Mayor David Dinkins, actively supported it.
But now that Republicans dominate Congress and New York's mayor and governor are both Republicans, the zone may have lost its political base.
Confirming such concerns, a House appropriations committee early this month proposed a massive $7.2 billion slash from the budget of Housing and Urban Development, the federal department overseeing the zone program. If approved, New York would lose at least $670 million in federal housing and community development funds and more than 7,000 public housing units, according to Andrew Cuomo, a HUD assistant secretary.
"It shouldn't take money from EZ directly," HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros said in an interview. But it will affect the zones by eliminating money for which the zones would otherwise qualify, he said.
The empowerment zone program will offer zone residents training for jobs in industries expected to grow in the borough, and provide small-business and basic literacy classes among dozens of other job-based goals. The zone encompasses Mott Haven, Port Morris and Hunts Point.
Vice President Al Gore, speaking recently at Harlem's Apollo Theater, insisted that the federal money is secure from partisan politics.
"It is included in the budget and has bipartisan support," he said. "It is very unlikely that the new Republican Congress will try to remove it."
The city and state each initially pledged to match the federal funds but so far they have not, jeopardizing the zone's designation.
"I'm nervous," said Borough President Fernando Ferrer. "The state and city money is not where it should be."
But Cuomo was optimistic. "Just because you don't see EZ as a budget item doesn't mean the item won't get funded."
The state is grappling with a $5 billion deficit and the city is struggling to eliminate a $2.7 billion one.
Sandra Peters, a spokeswoman for State Senator Joseph L. Galiber (D-Bronx), says state zone funding will be settled within days.
But the trimmed city budget seems an unlikely source for $100 million in matching funds, she said. "If they can take money from school children," Peters said, alluding to the mayor's $475 million in proposed cuts to the Board of Education, "then anything could happen."
Optimists such as Gore say that the empowerment zone program embraces the Republican approach to poverty, offering incentives to business. But the borough's proposed zone budget, which Ferrer defends, heavily emphasizes social services.
"It should meet the needs of people who live in the area," he said. "Get them literate, get them job-ready."