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NYC HIV Planning Council Investigates Ryan White Cuts
Newsday (New York City) (04.04.03)::Margaret Ramirez
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New York City's HIV Planning Council voted Thursday to launch an
investigation into a $14 million cut in federal funds to the city's AIDS
programs. The US Department of Health and
Human Services recently slashed the city's share of Ryan White Title I funds
by 12 percent - from $118 million last year to $104 million this year.
The panel's decision came during a heated meeting to discuss how the city
would deal with the federal cut. Several members of the planning council - a
50-member citywide panel that decides how Ryan White funds are distributed -
lashed out at the city Health Department and blamed it for the reduction.
"How did the city Health Department spend thousands of dollars writing an
application that was ranked so poorly?" asked council member Candia
Richards-Clarke.
Speaking at the meeting, Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden defended the
application and welcomed the investigation. "If you find problems with the
application, let's use that to make sure next year's application is better.
But my take is that absolutely nothing in the application justifies this
cut," he said. The city is talking with federal officials to try and restore
the funds,
Frieden said.
The HIV Planning Council also approved its budget at the meeting; this
required across-the-board service cuts of 3.5 percent. Among city services
that will suffer are mental health
care, food pantries, housing, transportation and ambulatory medical care.
Council member Joe Pressley faulted Mayor Michael Bloomberg for the cut and
said the city should use more tax money for AIDS programs. "We need the mayor
to fix this hole that I think he created," Pressley said.
City Council Speaker Gifford Miller (D-Manhattan), in a separate action, has
lodged a formal complaint with the federal government about the $14 million
cut.
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