The children of Baltimore City will suffer big reductions in programs that serve them if Mayor Sheila Dixon’s proposed fiscal year 2010 municipal budget is passed by the City Council this month. Austere revenue projections resulting from the ongoing global recession have caused the Mayor to propose significant cuts in programs that deliver services to our children and youth. These reductions loom large in the proposed budget and have prompted complaints from tax payers who are concerned and anxious about the reduction of youth services that will go into effect on July 1st of this year.

Only the proposed cuts to the Fire Department, General Services and Public Works are each individually larger than the proposed cuts in the Department of Recreation and Parks budget which will be cut by just under $2.75 million. If you add all the cuts proposed to services for our youth in the budgets for the Enoch Pratt Free Library, the Community Schools Program, Educational Grants, the Office of Children, Youth and Families and the General Fund the total cuts to services provided to our youth represent the single largest focus area of cuts in the Mayor’s 2010 operating budget proposal combining for more than $5.4 million.

Overall the Recreation and Parks Department budget will be cut by 8%. The Mayor’s proposed budget includes the statement that “an overall increase in structured and recreational programming for children and youth” will result. This statement seems nearly impossible to achieve when contrasted with the significant reductions in staffing (-43) and funding being proposed for the Department in the Mayor’s budget. The fact that no details about the increased programming have been provided is questionable and warrants further public scrutiny.

While residents clearly acknowledge the fact that the recession is broad and deep, they reject the notion that children should be adversely affected as a result of the economic down-turn and proposed cuts in City services. #file_1# Sentiments at one of the 20+ ongoing Recreation and Parks Department community forums were universally opposed to the planned cuts in Recreation and Parks services for the community of Cherry Hill. Parents and children alike provided feedback to Recreation and Parks representatives and convincingly conveyed their disapproval during the standing room only meeting. First to the microphone at the April 8th forum was 18 year old Marquisa Austin, a long-time participant in the afterschool programs at the Patapsco Recreation Center where the operating hours will be reduced 3 hours each day and the Carter G. Woodson Recreation Center which will be turned over to the Baltimore City Public School System. Marquisa said, “These programs have given my life discipline and structure and have kept me out of trouble”. Mrs. Betty Baze, the Chairwoman of the Cherry Hill Development Corporation said that the well known rift between community factions will be exacerbated by the closing of the Carter G. Woodson Recreation Center and the community should anticipate a long and troubled summer. Several adult males from the community provided feedback stating that the recreation centers in Cherry Hill have provided male role models in the form of the male employees who managed the recreation centers over the years. These young men all stated that they also learned valuable life lessons while participating in the afterschool programs from the recreation center employees who often represented the only male authority figure in their lives.

Others expressed their disappointment with the process the Mayor used to develop the proposed budget. Mr. Michael Middleton of the Cherry Hill Community Coalition said, “The Mayor’s process failed to include or solicit input from the affected communities before her budget proposal was presented to the City Council”, he added that a more inclusive process would have been welcomed and would eliminate the heavy handed feeling that is prevailing among the residents. Frustrated and displeased many attendees suggested that the representatives of the Department of Recreation and Parks Department and the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhoods in attendance should take cuts in their own pay to make up shortfalls in the Recreation and Parks Department budget.

Noticeably absent from the forum was representation from the Baltimore City Public School System who will take control of one of the two recreation centers in Cherry Hill if the proposed budget is approved by the City Council. The community has received no information from the school system regarding its plans for operating the recreation center after it takes control in July. Children from communities neighboring Cherry Hill like Westport will also be adversely affected by the budget cuts because they have traditionally participated in the programs at both Cherry Hill recreation centers. Mrs. Linda Towe, Executive Director of Project T.O.O.U.R. says “The proposed budget cuts will have a dramatic impact on the children of Westport and the youth programs that my organization sponsors“.

Ms. Portia E. Harris, the Deputy Director of the Department of Recreation and Parks, the most senior City official at the forum stated that the Department will to work with the community to find alternatives to the budget challenges, however to date no efforts have been made to continue the discussions begun at the April 8th forum in Cherry Hill.

It has not been confirmed whether the Mayor and members of the City Council have received feedback from the Recreation and Parks Department community forums, but citizens also held a small rally outside of City Hall on April 20th to further express their disapproval of the proposed budget cuts. Citizens of Cherry Hill have taken this issue a step farther and have circulated a petition that has garnered over 400 signatures of citizens opposing the proposed cuts and ask that the Recreation and Parks Department budget be fully restored. The community planned to deliver the petition to the City Council President at the Budget Committee hearing on the Department of Recreation and Parks proposed budget which was scheduled for May 12, 2009 at 3pm.

The Baltimore City Council Budget Committee began holding hearings on the Mayor’s proposed budget at City Hall beginning on May 11, 2009. A final vote on the budget is expected in the near future and will allow the budget to become effective on July 1, 2009. We will continue reporting on the impact of the proposed 2010 budget cuts on the children of Baltimore City.