City Council Allocates Funding to Embattled Councilman Halloran's District

The City Council’s Queens delegation will step in to assist civic groups and cultural institutions in Councilman Dan Halloran’s, R-Whitestone, district after a Citizens Union Foundation report found that he was ranked last on the Council for discretionary funding. 

According to the report, Halloran placed last on a list of discretionary funding for the City Council’s 51 members.

The City Council had stripped Halloran of his committee assignments and his ability to allocate funding in northeast Queens following his April 2 arrest on charges of using bribery to get state Sen. Malcolm Smith, a Democrat, on the Republican mayoral ballot.

In Fiscal Year 2013, Halloran’s district received a total $4.7 million in capital funds. But in Fiscal Year 2014, the allocation for his district was $2.5 million less, bringing the total in capital funds for the upcoming year to $2.1 million, according to the Citizens Union report.

Councilman Leroy Comrie, D-St. Albans, who leads the City Council’s Queens delegation, told the Daily News that the legislative body would allocate more than $3.5 million to groups in Halloran’s district in an attempt to fill in the gaps left after the councilman was stripped of his ability to decide which organizations would receive money.

Comrie also said the Council would ensure that projects chosen last spring during the district’s participatory budgeting process would receive funding.

The winning projects in the participatory budgeting process included an upgrade of P.S. 98’s art room, additional police cameras, the structural restoration of the Poppenhusen Institute, the rehabilitation of MacNeil Park, kayak and canoe launches, special needs playground equipment and SMART boards at Bell Academy, P.S. 32, P.S. 129, P.S. 130, P.S. 159, P.S. 184 and P.S. 193.

Warren Schreiber, president of the Bay Terrace Community Alliance, said community leaders were relieved that funding for civics, schools and cultural organizations in Halloran’s district would not be lost.

“I’m pleased that the city stepped in and happy that the Queens delegation did the right thing,” he said. “The citizens of this community should not have to suffer because of the wrongdoings of their elected officials.”