by Carly Rothman

The New York Budget pas de deux is in full swing — and both Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor David Paterson are dangerously close to trampling on New York City’s most vulnerable.

It started with the governor’s budget proposal last month, in which he called for a $1.2 million reduction in the amount budgeted for the Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNAP), a state program that provides funds to approximately 2,500 emergency food organizations statewide.

The governor’s proposal also called for a $1.3 billion drop in overall state funding for New York City. In response, last week Mayor Bloomberg unveiled a preliminary budget that outlined steps the city could take if the governor’s plan succeeds — a list that includes eliminating New York’s Emergency Food Assistance Program (EFAP), which provides millions of dollars in funding to about 500 local soup kitchens and food pantries each year.

“[It’s] just a possibility, but in the aggregate it has to be something like this,” the mayor said.

That’s scary talk in a city where roughly 40 percent of residents have difficulty affording food.

Last year alone, more than 90 percent of the city’s soup kitchens and food pantries saw a rise in demand. Even an influx of federal stimulus dollars couldn’t save many of our city’s emergency food providers from having to turn families away. And while stimulus funding will disappear this year, demand for emergency food isn’t expected to abate.

President Obama seems to recognize the need to provide for America’s most vulnerable. Despite his call to cap federal discretionary funding, the budget released by the president this week calls for an investment in Child Nutrition programs, and preserves funding for emergency food assistance.

Even with this federal aid, significant cuts to food assistance at the state and local level would be devastating to those who depend on these funds to eat.

“You have my commitment that we won’t let the quality of life decline now,” Mayor Bloomberg said in his budget address, calling on New York to “do more with less.”

But those who turn to soup kitchens and food pantries are already struggling to do more with less. They are falling behind on rent. They aren’t filling needed prescriptions. The food pantry and soup kitchen are often their last resort.

It’s bad enough that families are sacrificing basic needs to balance their budgets. New York City and State should not follow them down that desperate, dangerous road.