QUEENS, NY (TIP): Queens Borough President Melinda Katz chaired the Queens Borough Board’s annual budget hearing on Thursday, February 20, at Queens Borough Hall. The hearing is an opportunity for local organizations to present their requests for City funding to the Borough Board.
The Board is comprised Borough President Katz, the City Council members representing Queens and the chairs of the borough’s Community Boards. Representatives from nearly 180 community organizations presented their funding requests during the hearing, which lasted for about 11 hours. The district managers representing Queens’ 14 community boards also gave presentations on the budgetary needs of their communities.
Everyone who testified at the hearing was able to supplement their remarks with written testimony. The Borough President will consider the input from the Borough Board members and all of the presentations made in order to issue a report of the borough’s budget priorities next month. The report will be referred to during budget negotiations leading up to the adoption of the City’s Fiscal Year 2015 budget, which must be adopted prior to July 1.
“The Borough Board’s budget hearing allows us to get a great sense of what the top budgetary priorities should be for borough,” Katz said. “Also, being able to take in all this information will help me and the members of our City Council delegation speak with one voice during the upcoming budget talks, which I believe is important if Queens is to get is fair share of City funding.”