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Department for the Aging Defends Modernization Plan

By Kathleen Horan

NEW YORK, NY November 21, 2008 —The City Council continues to hold budget hearings to hear about what different city agencies plan to do to reduce their spending.

But the city's Department for the Aging spent much of its testimony defending a proposal they say won't be a cut.

It's the planned "modernization" of senior centers that requires them to prove they provide wellness services -- or risk losing funding.

The DFTA commissioner says the agency doesn't plan to close centers, but he can't guarantee it Bronx Councilman James Vacca says that is not good enough:

VACCA: "Why should we wait until that time comes when people will shrug their shoulders and say, well we didn't want this to happen, but that's the way the process went. Well that's not acceptable and senior citizens are not drinking the Kool Aid!"

REPORTER: DFTA has proposed cutting elder abuse prevention and social adult day care services to comply with a required 2.5 percent budget cut for all city agencies.


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