Halloran suggests per capita funding

From City Hall:

Though Queens is nearly five times the size of Manhattan and has 700,000 more people, Queens' budget for its borough president’s office, libraries and its capital construction budget is often equal to or less than that of Manhattan, according to Queens Republican Council Member Dan Halloran.

In order to reduce these inequalities in per capita funding, Halloran introduced a potentially politically risky bill at Wednesday’s stated meeting that would level the playing field between Manhattan and the outer boroughs.

The bill would change the Council’s internal rules to require that funding for borough presidents, libraries and capital construction be distributed solely on the basis of a district or boroughs’ population and geographical size.

Though the city’s charter revision discussed questions of how to more equally distribute funds between the boroughs, Halloran argued that no panel formed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg would every actually approve such as measure for the ballot, since doing so would take away considerable discretion from Bloomberg in doling out funds.

“The mayor would never let something like that happen,” Halloran said.

Halloran’s bill would have to go through the Finance Committee, where Halloran said he expects it will see resistance. Manhattan members will likely oppose the bill, along with the mayor. Still, Halloran said he was trying to rally support from good government groups and other outer borough Council members.