Mayor Budgets Anti-Poverty Outlays

from The New York Sun

By JILL GARDINER

Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday he would earmark $150 million a year to reduce poverty among three populations of New Yorkers, and announced plans to create a new office to help low-income residents get a handle on their finances.

Mr. Bloomberg announced that the funding — which will include $25 million in privately raised money — would be part of his future budgets, and said the new investments would rely on innovative, and in some cases never-before-tested, programs.

"This is not just a one-time shot," Mr. Bloomberg, a multibillionaire, told reporters at a credit union on the Lower East Side. "This is an annual commitment."

Mr. Bloomberg's commissioner for consumer affairs, Jonathan Mintz, said the city was planning on establishing so-called independent development accounts, which would be similar to 401(k) accounts in providing matching funds to those who set aside savings. The programs are usually used as incentives to get low-income individuals to set aside money for college education or to purchase a first home.

When asked about the savings accounts, Mr. Mintz said: "You just told my first announcement." He said the programs are "exactly what we are going to try to do." No other details about that initiative were made public yesterday, and it is unclear whether the match would come from city coffers or from private philanthropy.

The overarching mission is an outgrowth of an anti-poverty commission Mr. Bloomberg convened about nine months ago. The commission was run by Time Warner's CEO, Richard Parsons, and the CEO of the Harlem Children's Zone, Geoffrey Canada.

It put reducing poverty as a front and center item on the mayor's second-term agenda, and the success or failure of the initiatives will serve as important political evaluation for him and for Mr. Parson, a possible 2009 mayoral candidate.

Mr. Bloomberg said about 30 more programs would be rolled out in the coming months. Another of the programs will send nurses to poor, first-time mothers for regular visits.

In September Mr. Bloomberg announced the city would offer $1,000 tax credits for poor families who need day care, and said the city would use private money to pilot a controversial cash rewards programs. The program, which will be paid for with private funding, will reward low-income New Yorkers as incentives for behaviors like keeping doctors appointments.

All of the new programs will focus resources on helping children, working adults, and young adults.

Yesterday was the first time Mr. Bloomberg publicly put a dollar figure on his poverty plan. Although the announcement left many unanswered questions about the specifics of how the money will be spent, Mr. Bloomberg repeatedly said he would implement a business-style model that tracks the success of the programs. He said programs that work will be invested in more heavily, while those that don't will be terminated. Most of the programs seem to be boutique-style programs that are very narrowly targeted.

"In government, all too often failing programs receive more funding," he said, adding: "If we find certain programs that aren't producing results, we're just going to terminate those programs."

As part of the plan, he is putting $100 million of the $150 million into an "Innovation Fund" to be run by the deputy mayor for health and human services, Linda Gibbs. The fund will make decisions about how to spend the money rather than being tied to itemized programs in the budget. The mayor is also creating a Center for Economic Development to manage and evaluate the new programs. In addition, he established an Office of Financial Empowerment to work with low-income city residents on making the most of their money and in protecting them from financial predators.

Of the $150 million, about $25 million will be privately raised, $7.7 million will come from the state and federal governments, and the remainder will come from the city. The city is funneling $42 million toward early childhood programs, $32 million toward "at-risk adults," $20 million for employment programs and about $30 million for job and financial programs for the working poor.

The president of the Community Service Society, David Jones, a member of the mayor's poverty commission, said the $150 million was a "respectable investment."

"The mayor has come up with a target of a relatively substantial amount of money, which has never been put out by any other administration," Mr. Jones said. "There is a clear indication that if we can get workable models for handling some of these critical problems that that would be the down payment for ramping them up into full blown programming."

City Council Member William de Blasio, who has criticized the administration in the past, said he was "pleased to a set real first steps."

"I don't think this is going to solve the poverty problem in New York per say, but it's real money and it's a serious beginning towards a larger strategy," he said.