Bradley’s Budget--No AIDS Prevention Funds
Mayor Tom Bradley’s proposed city budget contains no funding for a condoms-and-bleach AIDS prevention program he announced three months ago, and City Council budget slashers said Thursday there is no extra money in the city’s general fund to pay for it.
The future of the program and other AIDS-prevention measures now hinges on whether Los Angeles can obtain a $250,000 federal grant, officials said. But that amount would pay only half the costs of the AIDS-prevention program drawn by the city’s Community Development Department.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. April 28, 1990 For the Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday April 28, 1990 Home Edition Metro Part B Page 3 Column 6 Metro Desk 2 inches; 60 words Type of Material: Correction
AIDS program--A story in Friday’s editions incorrectly implied that Mayor Tom Bradley’s office has not requested any money to fund AIDS prevention programs. As reported, Bradley did not include AIDS programs in his 1990-91 budget proposal. But with the mayor’s endorsement, a Community Development Department request for an AIDS prevention appropriation was subsequently forwarded by the mayor’s office to the City Council.
“What we’re talking about is a level of commitment,” Dave Johnson, the city’s AIDS coordinator, said during a session of the City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee. He said he did not know why Bradley had failed to ask for an appropriation in next year’s budget.
Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani said Thursday that the AIDS program was not included in the new budget because the document went to press before the Community Development Department had for warded all the necessary information to the mayor’s office.
Fabiani said it is not unusual to send additional budget requests to the council after the budget has been announced. He added that he thinks prospects are good for getting the federal grant.
Johnson told the committee he would be forced to drastically curtail the fledgling programs even if the $250,000 grant is obtained.
Johnson was the last city official to go before the budget committee as it ended four days of hearings on an extremely tight fiscal 1990-91 budget that may include layoffs and tax increases.
“You are not going to get half a million dollars, at least not from the general fund,” said Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, chairman of the budget committee.
Three weeks ago, the City Council allocated $85,000 to pay for the condoms-and bleach-program as well as other AIDS-prevention measures until the fiscal year ends on June 30.
The allocation includes $25,000 to pay for about 60,000 kits, each containing a bottle of bleach for sterilizing needles, one or more condoms and an informational flyer about AIDS. The kits are to be distributed to intravenous drug users.
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