Bloomberg's $104M slush fund

From the NY Observer:

...in the Bloomberg administration's two capital budgets released since, an allocation for the Javits Center is still there, though not necessarily for any expansion plans. Instead, the budget line for the scuttled plans seems to serve as a parking lot for funds that will ultimately be spent elsewhere. In last year's mayoral budget, there was more than $150 million less allocated to the fund, with the money apparently moved elsewhere (it also could have been seen as simply being cut, as the economic development capital budget was decreased this year). And in the mayor's proposed budget released last week, the money listed for Javits was down another $93 million, apparently taken out and moved around elsewhere in the budget. (Perhaps those projects receiving the funding were Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Greenpoint-Williamsburg waterfront, which appeared to get new funding.)

Previously, the mayor's staff has said money from the Javits fund would be used to fund Brooklyn Bridge Park and Governors Island.

To a certain extent, there is some reasoning behind this: The money was once earmarked for economic development, so why not let it get reallocated elsewhere, even if the Bloomberg administration hasn't yet figured out precisely where to put it?

But the lingering $104 million listed in the budget comes at a time when the city's operating budget is being slashed, the capital budget has already been cut back and the Bloomberg administration is apparently scaling back spending on repairs and maintenance, per a report from the Citizens Budget Commission.