Local councilmen tout budget victories

It looks like the city budget for fiscal year 2015, which passed last week, has something for everyone on the council. The area’s three councilmen joined nearly all of their colleagues in voting for the $75 billion spending package, which includes increased funding for public housing, education and other areas without raising taxes.

Riverdale’s Councilman Andrew Cohen, the chairman of the mental health committee, touted $33 million allocated for dealing with violence and mental illness on Rikers Island.

A spokesman for Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, whose district includes part of Marble Hill, said in an e-mail the official is pleased at funding for legal representation for undocumented immigrants, increases for the Puerto Rican and Dominican Studies Institutes and money for anti-eviction legal services, among other measures.

Russell Murphy also said the budget includes about $39,000 to complete the installation of cameras at the Marble Hill Houses, a project that Mr. Rodriguez and the two other councilmen initiated last year.

Bronx Councilman Fernando Cabrera will be pleased at $17.1 million for NYCHA community centers. He, Public Housing Chairman Ritchie Torres and others had lobbied for weeks to keep centers at the Ft. Independence Houses and elsewhere from shuttering. Mr. Cabrera’s office did not answer a request for comment as of press time.

Other news outlets noted an unfulfilled request for 1,000 extra police officers as well as universal free lunch just for middle schoolers, as opposed to students at every level, mean the budget leaves some council members’ wishes unrealized.

Participatory budgeting on the way

Mr. Cohen has announced plans to bring participatory budgeting to his district. He promised to allocate at least $1 million of his discretionary funds to establishing a system for his constituents to vote on how some of the city’s funding is spent starting in fiscal year 2016.