For the second time in five months, Governor David Paterson and the State Legislature slashed food funding to emergency soup kitchens and food pantries, despite the soaring need at such agencies.

In April, the Legislature and the Governor cut by 16% the Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNAP), the main source of State funding for charitable food pantries, soup kitchens, and food banks that feed hungry New Yorkers in suburban, rural and urban communities across the state. On top of that, the State just agreed to an additional 6% cut in any HPNAP funding for this year that has not already been spent, thereby cutting another $1.2 million out of the HPNAP budget.

Yet, according to data from the New York City Human Resources Administration (HRA), the nearly half of all the feeding agencies in the City who receive HRA funding served a total of 1.946 million meals in March and April of 2008. This was 167,611 more meals than the 1.788 million meals served in March and April of 2007, which represents a nine percent increase. Agencies from the rest of the state have been reporting similar increases.

Such cuts in poverty programs could have been avoided if the State Senate and the Governor had agreed to the State Assembly’s plan to slightly increase the tax rate on the wealthiest one percent of wage earners in the state (those with incomes of more than one million dollars or more each year).

“Given that Governor Paterson previously had such a progressive record in public life, it is particularly distressing that he has twice chosen to prove his supposed ‘fiscal toughness’ in his new job by balancing the budget on the back of the state’s most vulnerable residents,” said Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, an umbrella group for the city’s pantries and kitchens. “Surely a much better alternative would have been restoring previous, fairer levels of taxation to the very wealthiest people who earn income in New York. In truth, this isn’t a question of whether the State supports tax hikes or not. After all, every time the MTA raises fares, such fare hikes are, in effect, a State tax increase on working families. So, since the State is already raising revenues, shouldn’t it obtain such money from the millionaires and billionaires most able afford paying a bit extra?”

Continued Berg, “True courage in governance comes from making tough choices between areas of higher and lower priority, not by indiscriminately slashing help to those with great needs. Demonstrating such courage, Governor Jon S. Corzine in neighboring New Jersey found a way to increase anti-hunger funding even as he was making other tough budget cuts. It’s hard to imagine a higher budget priority than ensuring that all families have enough to eat.”