Mayors Attack President’s Plan to Shift Funding

Worried that their cities are the big losers in President Bush’s budget, the nation’s mayors on Friday denounced as “bogus” his plan to shift billions of dollars in federal programs to the states.

“We the mayors of America, Republicans and Democrats, are united that this simply won’t work and isn’t a good idea,” said Bill Althaus, the Republican mayor of York, Pa.

The mayors are particularly opposed to the Bush Administration’s proposal to include the $3.2-billion Community Development Block Grant program among a list of federal projects that would be turned over to the states.

Boston Mayor Raymond L. Flynn, a Democrat and vice president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, also assailed “this bogus White House proposal” at a news conference with other mayors.

The Administration offered the governors a list involving $21 billion worth of federal programs in five areas: education, water treatment construction, health and human services, housing, and law enforcement. It invited them to select $15 billion worth, or more, to be consolidated in a block grant. If approved by Congress, the Administration would send the money directly to the states and leave them free to spend the money as they wished.

The mayors argue that giving the grants to the states would add a new layer of bureaucracy, which likely would divert the money to projects less likely to ease urban problems.