Boro Prez Says Cutting Senior Centers Doesn’t Make Sense

Borough President Helen Marshall lambasted planned budget cuts to day care and senior centers at a public meeting on Wednesday night.

“They are planning to close many senior centers and also take day care slots, which doesn’t make sense” Marshall said before the convened members of the Clinton Democratic Club.

Governor Mario Cuomo’s state budget would cut Title XX funds to senior centers by $25 million.  Under the proposed plan, approximately 110 senior centers could close, affecting over 7,000 older New Yorker’s, according to the Council of Senior Services of New York City.

“For many seniors it means life, it means excitement, it means friendship – they get a meal everyday and also," said Marshall, adding, "Many of them find talents they didn’t know they had because they were so busy working all the time."

Marshall also spoke of proposed daycare closures that will affect many working class residents.

Many are located in private properties, where rents have risen in the past few years. “I am an early childhood teacher, education starts when a child is born, maybe even before,” said Marshall, adding, “the point is every child should have an education, on us.”

 Before leaving the crowd of Bayside area Democrats, Marshall swore in the Young Democrats Executive Board, as well as the Board of Trustees and Executive Board of the Clinton Democratic Club.