Dinowitz speaks out against potential cuts to senior centers

We touched upon this in a budget article in this week's Riverdale Review, so make sure to check that out if you can.

Dinowitz (at podium) speaks out against possible cuts to senior services
with (l-r) NYC Department for the Aging Commissioner Lilliam
Barrios-Paoli, state Senator Diane Savino, and
Assemblywomen Grace Meng and Joan Millman.

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz spoke out against potential cuts to Title XX funding for senior centers at a rally at City Hall yesterday, sponsored by the Council of Senior Centers & Services of NYC. For each of the last two years, the Governor's budget proposed cutting tens of millions of dollars from Title XX funding, which resulted in New York City threatening to close over a hundred senior centers. Dinowitz, the former chair of the Assembly Committee on Aging, led a successful fight this year to prevent this cutback and the closing of senior centers.

With Governor Andrew Cuomo pondering calling a special session that would bring legislators back to Albany to discuss more cuts, in order to balance the budget after the tax revenue did not match expectations, Dinowitz and others are worried that senior services could end up back on the chopping board.

"This time around, we want to convince the Governor to not propose this cut in the first place. I will fight together with Speaker Sheldon Silver, Aging Committee Chair Joan Millman, and my other colleagues to make sure that seniors will not have to live in fear that the senior centers that so many of them depend upon would be closed," Dinowitz said in a statement.

Diaz Sr. planning surprise visits to senior centers with Thanksgiving gifts

State senator Rev. Ruben Diaz Sr. will be making surprise visits to 23 senior citizen centers between Nov. 14 and Nov. 23 to distribute 1,500 Thanksgiving gift cards worth $10 each to senior citizens at the centers when he arrives. These gift cards have been sponsored by Diaz and Access Health Care.

 

"During the next two weeks, I will visit 23 senior citizen centers unannounced and all seniors who are present will receive a gift card to help them purchase their Thanksgiving meals," Diaz said. "At Thanksgiving we count all of our blessings, and our senior citizens who are our parents, our aunts, our uncles, our neighbors and our friends are at the top of the list to thank God for being part of our lives."

Jump below for the list of centers he is visiting.