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Following New York City health department reports of increasing HIV diagnoses in young gay men of color, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's proposed 2009 budget cuts at least $1.3 million in the health department's AIDS services and HIV testing efforts.
"As a result of the six percent reduction required of all agencies in the mayor's executive budget plan, the health department will be reducing some expenditures across the agency," the department wrote in a May 7 statement responding to a May 2 query from Gay City News. "The reductions include a $1.3 million cut in HIV/AIDS service contracts and our rapid test kit distribution to local hospitals."
All of the HIV and sexually transmitted disease programs are part of the department's disease control and epidemiology budget, which was cut by $2.6 million from more than $102 million in 2008 to $99.5 million in 2009, so cuts to HIV services account for half of all cuts in that budget.
Overall, the health department budget was reduced by $116 million from more than $1.6 billion to $1.5 billion, according to city budget documents. The mayor announced the $59.1 billion city budget, in which spending grew by 0.1 percent, on May 1.
According to Gay City News' review of the budget documents, net cuts totaling $4.4 million came from the health department's HIV and sexually transmitted disease programs and 46 jobs in those programs are eliminated. The budget also cut three jobs and $200,000 for efforts at monitoring methicilin-resistant staph infections, or MRSA.
The health department reported a 60 percent increase in syphilis cases in 2007 over 2006 among gay and bisexual men. MRSA has emerged as a serious health problem among gay men in New York City and across the country.
"Much of the apparent HIV and STD drop in funding for personnel is misleading, since many federal grants received by the health department in fiscal year 2008 have not yet been added to the agency's budget for fiscal year 2009," the department wrote. "These funds are never reflected in the executive budget. This includes approximately 25 staff positions, the vast majority of which we anticipate being included when these grants are eventually recognized in our 2009 budget."
Discretionary funding from the City Council was not included in the proposed budget and may pay for some of those positions so they only appear to be vacant. Others may be long-term vacancies.
As Gay City News went to press, a health department spokesperson was unable to provide additional detail. AIDS groups either did not respond to requests for comment or were still making their own reviews of the 2009 city budget and could not comment.
Apparently, even the mayor can be confused by the budget.
At a May 6 Times Square press conference, Gay City News asked the Bloomberg, "Your proposed budget for 2009 cuts syphilis, sexually transmitted disease, and AIDS services at the health department. Can you explain those cuts?"
The mayor responded, "Your facts are wrong. It does not cut at all. Those are very high priority things at our health department. Early detection can make a very big difference in treatment and, while we have to focus on education so that people know how to prevent catching sexually transmitted diseases, we have to make sure that everybody knows their status... We didn't cut anything. We tried to move things around within the agency to make it function better."
The question and the mayor's answer were taped. On May 7, Stu Loeser, the mayor's press secretary, called Gay City News to say that the mayor thought the newspaper was asking about the health department closing the Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Health. Gay City News reported that in February.
"I think there was a misunderstanding," Loeser said. "Our understanding was that you were asking about the LGBT health office."
The press conference was on an island in the middle of Times Square as traffic continued to move by on both sides and the sound system that reporters used to ask questions was malfunctioning.
The cuts, whatever their size, come as 15 gay and AIDS groups, dubbed the Emergency Response Coalition for MSM of Color, are asking the City Council to add $5.5 million to the budget to address HIV among African-American, Latino, Asian-American, and Native-American men who have sex with men.
Gay and AIDS groups have also been complaining that funds previously allocated by the City Council to address AIDS in communities of color are not being released quickly enough.
At a May 1 hearing of the Council's Health Committee, Maria del Carmen Arroyo and Helen D. Foster, who represent parts of the Bronx, Rosie Mendez, who represents Manhattan's Lower East Side, and Letitia James from Brooklyn pressed two senior health department staffers on the department's response to increasing HIV infections among young men of color.
"We need to hear from the department when do you anticipate having this strategy?" Arroyo asked Dr. M. Monica Sweeney, assistant commissioner for the Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control.
The department expects to roll out prevention campaigns within the next six months, Sweeney said.
James was particularly pointed in her comments, suggesting that the mayor and the City Council may not be responding because African-American gay men are affected.
"It goes to the racism and homophobia that is in this building... and in this Council I might add," she said.
"As a result of the six percent reduction required of all agencies in the mayor's executive budget plan, the health department will be reducing some expenditures across the agency," the department wrote in a May 7 statement responding to a May 2 query from Gay City News. "The reductions include a $1.3 million cut in HIV/AIDS service contracts and our rapid test kit distribution to local hospitals."
All of the HIV and sexually transmitted disease programs are part of the department's disease control and epidemiology budget, which was cut by $2.6 million from more than $102 million in 2008 to $99.5 million in 2009, so cuts to HIV services account for half of all cuts in that budget.
Overall, the health department budget was reduced by $116 million from more than $1.6 billion to $1.5 billion, according to city budget documents. The mayor announced the $59.1 billion city budget, in which spending grew by 0.1 percent, on May 1.
According to Gay City News' review of the budget documents, net cuts totaling $4.4 million came from the health department's HIV and sexually transmitted disease programs and 46 jobs in those programs are eliminated. The budget also cut three jobs and $200,000 for efforts at monitoring methicilin-resistant staph infections, or MRSA.
The health department reported a 60 percent increase in syphilis cases in 2007 over 2006 among gay and bisexual men. MRSA has emerged as a serious health problem among gay men in New York City and across the country.
"Much of the apparent HIV and STD drop in funding for personnel is misleading, since many federal grants received by the health department in fiscal year 2008 have not yet been added to the agency's budget for fiscal year 2009," the department wrote. "These funds are never reflected in the executive budget. This includes approximately 25 staff positions, the vast majority of which we anticipate being included when these grants are eventually recognized in our 2009 budget."
Discretionary funding from the City Council was not included in the proposed budget and may pay for some of those positions so they only appear to be vacant. Others may be long-term vacancies.
As Gay City News went to press, a health department spokesperson was unable to provide additional detail. AIDS groups either did not respond to requests for comment or were still making their own reviews of the 2009 city budget and could not comment.
Apparently, even the mayor can be confused by the budget.
At a May 6 Times Square press conference, Gay City News asked the Bloomberg, "Your proposed budget for 2009 cuts syphilis, sexually transmitted disease, and AIDS services at the health department. Can you explain those cuts?"
The mayor responded, "Your facts are wrong. It does not cut at all. Those are very high priority things at our health department. Early detection can make a very big difference in treatment and, while we have to focus on education so that people know how to prevent catching sexually transmitted diseases, we have to make sure that everybody knows their status... We didn't cut anything. We tried to move things around within the agency to make it function better."
The question and the mayor's answer were taped. On May 7, Stu Loeser, the mayor's press secretary, called Gay City News to say that the mayor thought the newspaper was asking about the health department closing the Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Health. Gay City News reported that in February.
"I think there was a misunderstanding," Loeser said. "Our understanding was that you were asking about the LGBT health office."
The press conference was on an island in the middle of Times Square as traffic continued to move by on both sides and the sound system that reporters used to ask questions was malfunctioning.
The cuts, whatever their size, come as 15 gay and AIDS groups, dubbed the Emergency Response Coalition for MSM of Color, are asking the City Council to add $5.5 million to the budget to address HIV among African-American, Latino, Asian-American, and Native-American men who have sex with men.
Gay and AIDS groups have also been complaining that funds previously allocated by the City Council to address AIDS in communities of color are not being released quickly enough.
At a May 1 hearing of the Council's Health Committee, Maria del Carmen Arroyo and Helen D. Foster, who represent parts of the Bronx, Rosie Mendez, who represents Manhattan's Lower East Side, and Letitia James from Brooklyn pressed two senior health department staffers on the department's response to increasing HIV infections among young men of color.
"We need to hear from the department when do you anticipate having this strategy?" Arroyo asked Dr. M. Monica Sweeney, assistant commissioner for the Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control.
The department expects to roll out prevention campaigns within the next six months, Sweeney said.
James was particularly pointed in her comments, suggesting that the mayor and the City Council may not be responding because African-American gay men are affected.
"It goes to the racism and homophobia that is in this building... and in this Council I might add," she said.
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