Cautious good news from Craig Hammerman of Community Board 6, Here’s his press release:

Thanks to City Council, our Borough Presidents and the 59 Community Boards, the budget that was adopted by the City Council this past Sunday night does not include any cuts to the Community Boards.

The City Council restored all of the money that the Mayor had proposed cutting from the Community Boards’ budgets. Just a reminder, the Mayor proposed an 8% cut to the CB’s budgets, which would have amounted to $16,000 per Board out of its $200,000 annual budget. All tolled, the savings was less than a million dollars ($16,000/CB x 59 CB’s = $944,000) out of a $59.1 billion budget, or 0.0016 % of the total City budget. This was not an effort to save money – the savings were insignificant compared to the size of the City’s budget; this was a direct assault on the Community Boards, and the community’s voice in government. Fortunately, our institution was spared. For now, at least.

The Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget did confirm this morning that our fiscal year 2009 budgets will remain in tact. However, they also added that the Mayor’s proposed cuts still exist as taking effect in fiscal year 2010 and beyond. This means that if the Mayor does not change his fiscal year 2010 budget, we’ll have to do the same thing next year and fight to defend our budget. We have some time to convince the Mayor of the value of a strong community voice in government. His 2010 Executive Budget isn’t due out until January 2009.

Frankly, I think it’s a shame that we have to pull energy and resources away from serving our communities to fight a crippling budget cut when we are stretched as thin as we are in the first place. We need to convince the Mayor to rescind these cuts permanently from future budgets. We also need to have a serious conversation with the Administration about how the Community Boards’ budgets could be increased to compensate for never having any cost of living adjustments, and how the City could provide more in-kind service support to the Community Boards. There are ways the Administration could support the Community Boards that wouldn’t cost them a dime. If only they had the will.

I look forward to seeing my colleagues in the Bronx next week to talk about the Community Boards’ role in City government in the context of potential Charter changes. Celebrate the day, and remember to thank those who supported us. We will likely need their help again to defend the community’s voice in government. We won a victory today, but the war rages on.