Vetoes Cut Qns. Ambulance Corps Funds
Several local volunteer ambulance corps were denied thousands of dollars in grants proposed by local members of the state legislature which were vetoed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo last Wednesday, Apr. 11.
The governor axed approximately 129 “member items” in the $132 billion state budget agreed upon in late March. Member items are discretionary funds requested by members of the Assembly and State Senate for organizations in their respective districts.
In a press release, the administration explained that Cuomo issued line-item vetoes for the majority of the member items-totaling about $640,000 in state funding, or a fraction of one percent of the budget- since they “were added to the budget after executive submission.” Others were denied due to “minor technical corrections.”
Among the funding requests which were rejected by the governor included $3,000 grants for the Ridgewood, Glendale and Forest Hills volunteer ambulance corps and a $3,200 item for the West Hamilton Beach Volunteer Fire Department and Ambulance Corps.
“It’s going to hurt us all,” said Ryan Gunning, president of the Glendale Volunteer Ambulance Corps (GVAC) and chair of the New York State Volunteer Ambulance and Rescue Association New York City division. He told the Times Newsweekly that GVAC and other volunteer paramedics groups heavily rely on funding from state and city lawmakers for their day to day operations.
“None of us are funded in any other way other than through small grants and donations” from the public, Gunning said. Even though funding is hard to come by, he noted that GVAC still responds to 1,000 calls in the Glendale area every year.
In an effort to pare its expenses, he noted, the GVAC is in the process of relocating its headquarters from its Myrtle Avenue location, which costs $2,000 a month in rent, to a smaller facility on Central Avenue. The organization is also planning dances and other fund-raising programs.
Should local volunteer ambulance corps ever fold, Gunning pointed out that the city would then be required to make up for the shortfall by adding new EMS ambulances and workers, which would cost taxpayers millions of dollars every year.
“The money would be phenomenal,” he added. “That’s kind of said. We’re kind of like a forgotten entity.”
Business groups and youth organizations also took a hit as a result of the member items vetoed by the governor last week. The Doe Fund, which provides supplemental sanitation services to shopping strips such as Myrtle Avenue in Ridgewood, lost a member item valued at $12,000.
The Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation, which offers a host of community and neighborhood development programs, lost a $10,000 grant. The Greater Ridgewood Youth Council and the One Stop Richmond Hill Community Center were each denied $3,000 member items.
Local veterans organizations also took a budgetary hit with the governor’s vetoes, as the American Legion Continental Post 1424 in Forest Hills, the John V. Daniels VFW Post 2813 in Woodside, the Bernard Coleman VFW Post 2565 in Howard Beach and the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 32 based in Glendale each lost $4,000 in requested grants.
“These veterans posts operate on a shoestring budget, and with the Department of Health” cracking down on them for violations in recent months, the grants “could have come in hand,” said State Sen. Joseph Addabbo in a phone interview with the Times Newsweekly.
Asked why he believed the member item requests were denied, Addabbo stated that “it’s a theory or ideology that pork, or member items, have a negative connotation.” This, he claimed, stemmed from the previous misuse of member items by a few former members of the state legislature, and in turn has “ruined the system.”
“It hurts these local groups that are totally ignored by the state budget and yet depend on these funds for mere existence,” Addabbo said. “In a budget of $132 billion, it’s pennies. It’s a fraction.”
The senator stated that he would announce a proposal to redesign the member item process that would “cut the elected officials out of the equation” and give local organizations “a direct line” to apply for state funding.
“Let’s create a process that allows these small groups to apply for a grant through a respective agency to get this money,” Addabbo said. “I could care less about the photo op. Get the money down to where it is needed. Our state budget ignores these people.”
Some of the other organizations in Queens which had member item request denied include the following:
– the Greater Woodhaven Development Corporation ($5,000);
– the South Queens Boys and Girls Club in Ozone Park ($3,500);
– the Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Center at Queensborough Community College in Bayside ($5,000);
– Maspeth Town Hall ($2,000);
– New Life Food Pantry in Elmhurst ($1,000);
– Ridgewood Seniors Community Corporation, which operates the Peter Cardella Senior Center in Ridgewood ($2,400);
– Zion Tabernacle Food Pantry in Ozone Park ($1,000);
– the Forest Park Trust in Woodhaven, which runs programs in Forest Park, retains a $7,500 member item, but lost a proposed $3,500 increase as a result of the veto;
– the Juniper Park Civic Association in Middle Village ($3,500);
– the Richmond Hill Block Association ($5,000);
– the Ridgewood Local Development Corporation ($3,000);
– the Ridgewood Property Owners and Civic Association ($2,500); and
– the Queens Symphony Orchestra ($5,000).
