Senior Spotlight
By John Toscano

Mayor Does Some Politicking At Senior Centers

For almost the past decade, efforts by former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and his successor, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, to cut funding for senior citizen programs in making up new budgets, were thwarted by the city council over the years.

So it came as a surprise last week when Bloomberg, according to a New York Times story, told members of a Bronx senior center, "Right at the beginning we said we were just not going to cut any of the senior centers."

The story said that a spokesman for the mayor explained afterward that the mayor meant right at the beginning of making up the budget for Fiscal Year 2004, but that doesn’t hold water.

It could be that the mayor is trying to rebuild his image with various segments of the electorate, and since he has gotten on very well with seniors in recent visits, he may have tried to change his past image.

But the story pretty much set the record straight, delineating the history of the mayor’s attempted cuts in senior programs. At one point, his aim was to close many senior centers but the city council fought him and the centers remained open, for the most part.

RX BILLS STALLED: According to reports out of Washington, the House–Senate conference committee trying to negotiate the differences in the Medicare Prescription benefit bills passed by the two houses in June so that a single acceptable bill can be voted has run into an impasse created by the Republican leaders of both houses.

Things got so bad recently that Senator Charles E. Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, one of the leaders of the Republican-run conference committee, boycotted the talks for several days because of differences with his House counterpart, Congressmember Bill Thomas, chair of the Ways and Means Committee.

Grassley of Iowa and Thomas of California have a history of bad relations over the years and tensions flared anew recently over higher payments for hospitals and doctors in rural areas of which Iowa has many, which Grassley favors. Aides to Thomas refuse to discuss the issue.

The upshot of the dispute is that there appears to be no movement on the bill, which President George W. Bush has said must be passed, and the cause of the delay lies with his own party’s top officials.

SENIORS PICNIC: Several weeks ago, a senior citizens picnic was held at Sunken Meadow State Park in Suffolk County. Hundreds of seniors from Queens, attended, as well as several elected officials, including Assemblymember Michael Gianaris (D–Astoria), Council Speaker Gifford Miller and Coouncilmember Diana Reyna (D–Brooklyn). Reyna is running for re-election in the new Queens/Brooklyn 34th Council District.

MEETING: AARP Jackson Heights Chapter No. 991will hold a special Fall Brunch on Wednesday, September 17 at 12:30 p.m. at the Jewish Center of Jackson Heights, 37-06 77th St., Jackson Heights.