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Candidates wrangle over discretionary funds

Candidates wrangle over discretionary funds
Photos by Nat Valentine (l.) and Christina Santucci
By Bianca Fortis

In one of the most hotly contested City Council races in Queens, Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village) is working to defend her seat in the 30th District from Republican challenger and political newcomer Craig Caruana.

The district includes Glendale, Maspeth, Middle Village, Richmond Hill, Ridgewood and Woodhaven.

One point Caruana has repeatedly made in his campaign is that Crowley has been unsuccessful in bringing discretionary funds — earmarks for local programs and projects — to the district.

According to publicly available data analyzed by good government group Citizens Union, in fiscal year 2010, Crowley brought in $4.8 million in discretionary expense and capital funds. In 2011, that number dropped to $2.7 million. In 2012, it rose to $5.7 million and in 2013 dropped again to about $2.3 million. For fiscal year 2014, the district received $3.5 million in funds, ranking 45th out of 51 districts.

“If Council member Crowley was as good at getting funding for projects as she is at fund-raising, I wouldn’t be as competitive as I am right now,” Caruana said about his campaign.

Caruana said the district ranks at the bottom of the budget while property taxes and the cost of living continue to rise.

“They pay high taxes, they’re middle-class people,” Caruana said about the residents of the district. “They need services from the city. They need returns on their investment.”

But Crowley countered that those discretionary funds are actually less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the city’s total budget and do not include the separate major multimillion-dollar capital projects for which she has successfully pushed.

Those capital projects include major infrastructure work, such as repaving more than half the streets in the district, renovating part of the J train, renovating local libraries and parks improvements, Crowley said.

“There has been no other Council member that has brought projects like that into the district,” Crowley said.

The councilwoman attributed the lower numbers in discretionary funds to the internal politics of the Council.

“Those are expense dollars that the speaker gives to people who follow her way of thinking, not necessarily independent Council members,” Crowley said. “I was elected to represent the people within the 30th Council District. And I’ve never forgotten that any time I go to City Hall.”

Crowley has spoken publicly about her view that the process of distributing discretionary funds is not transparent.

“These are the tax dollars of city residents,” she said. “We deserve to know how it works out. And I’ve been critical of that when other Council members haven’t.”

Caruana, however, said working well with other Council members, including the speaker, is part of what is expected of an elected representative.

“But it’s not just the money, although the money is obviously important,” Caruana said. “But it’s indicative of how effective she is in the Council. It’s symbolic of what her colleagues think of her.”

Caruana also said that if he is elected, he will join the city’s participatory budgeting program, which gives citizens the opportunity to vote on how to allocate funds for projects in their district.

He said the program is a way to encourage new neighborhood residents, especially immigrants, to get involved in the community.

“When you become involved, you’re just less cynical in the way you think about your government,” Caruana said.

Only nine Council members — three of whom are from Queens — participate in the program.

Crowley has not joined the program, although she said she would consider it.

She said the projects she works to fund are recommended by the district’s community boards, which she considers to be a form of participatory budgeting. Residents also reach out to the office about what they would like to see happen in the community, she said.

“My record speaks for itself,” Crowley said about her re-election campaign. “People are familiar with the work I’ve done and they’re excited that I’m running for re-election. What I’m going to do is continue to hear their concerns, express my vision and continue to work together to make sure the community stays one of the best places in the city to raise a family.”

Reach reporter Bianca Fortis by email at bfortis@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4546.