Governor Pataki's proposal for the 1998 fiscal year, presented to the state legislature last week, proposes a 75 percent cut to the Neighborhood Preservation Program and the Rural Preservation Program, the two main sources for state grants to community-based housing groups. Pataki slated big cuts for the programs in each of his previous budgets, and the state Assembly has restored them to previous levels both times. But advocates fear that the governor's assault on welfare funding and rent regulation could leave the housing cuts unrestored. It gets harder and harder every year to ask them to keep restoring the program when they have so many other things to worry about. All of the reforms, conceived to reduce the influence of big-money contributors, can be accomplished through an act of the City Council or changes in existing city regulations.
Nothing here requires anything like charter revision.
The City Club, Common Cause, League of Women Voters, the Women's City Club and the City Project also helped draft the plan. Several of the measures are already included in a bill submitted to the council by the city's Campaign Finance Board. Harlem Tenants Council meets at 215 West 125th St., 4th Fl. Family Planning Advocates of New York State holds a 20th anniversary conference in Albany. Lobbying visits, family planning workshops, youth organizing and info on welfare reform.