BxArts Factory students paint mural at BronxNet
Laura Alvarez and student put fi nishing touches on mural at BronxNet. Photo courtesy of BronxNet
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, A 32 UGUST 9-15, 2019 BTR
Action
Association
High school student artists
working under the direction
of BxArts Factory co-founder/
vice president/chief operating
offi cer and Bronx-born artist
Karen ‘KayLove’ Pedrosa have
prepared a visual welcome for
future users of BronxNet’s upcoming
studios and media labs
at the Hub. The young talented
art students recently put their
fi nishing touches on a unique,
Bronx-centric mural on a wall
located inside the new Bronx-
Net facility at 2825 Third Avenue.
BronxNet is opening the
interim studio facility in preparation
for the coming of a
permanent BronxNet media
center at the La Central development
in 2021.
Born in Spain where she
studied fi ne arts, Alvarez is
committed to the Bronx community
where she often takes
her arts to the streets and
provides arts education for
youth.
Pedrosa who studied at the
High School of Art and Design
and majored in painting at Lehman
College, creates art inspired
by scenes from Puerto
Rico based on her heritage,
as well as the urban bustle of
New York City.
In a portion of Alvarez’
description of the mural she
is creating at BronxNet with
her students she stated, “The
burning heart is the resilience
of the borough, represented in
words and that will become a
graffi ti mural with ‘We Are
the Bronx’ over the cleaner
Bronx River and more green
spaces. We can envision a better
Bronx if we get educated
and fi ght for what is right.”
“BronxNet is committed to
community engagement and
the BxArts Factory students
and artists are sharing great
pride in the Bronx as they help
vivify our newest location,
BronxNet at the Hub. We are
proud of their creativity and
we’re happy to showcase their
talents as they collaborate on
an epic tribute to the Bronx,”
said BronxNet executive director
Michael Max Knobbe.
BronxNet is the independent
not-for-profi t organization
serving the people of the
Bronx with media production
training, access to technology,
and television channels.
BronxNet programs six channels
– 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 and 38 on
the Verizon Fios system and
six channels – 67, 68, 69, 70, 951
and 952 – on the Optimum system
in the Bronx. BronxNet’s
ultra-local programming
helps connect the Bronx with
the world while our training
programs and partnerships
are a part of community development
through media. For
more information visit: www.
bronxnet.org.
BY FRANK VERNUCCIO
Attempts to corral spending
often hit the wrong targets
entirely.
As every family knows, all
spending is not equal. Repairing
a busted roof, for example,
has priority over taking a luxury
vacation. They also understand
that timely budgeting
and planning are the most
effi cient ways to use income.
It’s a vital practice. The federal
government has yet to understand
that logic.
Both Democrats and Republicans,
trying not to offend
any potential constituency
and apparently incapable of
coming to an agreement on
what the national priorities
should be, have engaged in ludicrous
procedures that treat
vital necessities, such as national
defense, on the same
par as the latest pork barrel
project.
The most well-known manifestation
of that nonsense is
Budget Sequestration, a law
and a concept that purportedly
seeks to limit the federal budget,
but in substance shields
Congress from its responsibility
to make hard decisions and
spend wisely. It sets a hard
cap on spending. The idea is
that if Congress enacts annual
appropriations that exceed
the limit, an across-the-board
spending cut is automatically
imposed on general categories,
affecting all departments and
programs equally. The current
incarnation of this ridiculous
idea came into effect (it
has antecedents going back to
1985) is the Budget Control Act
of 2011 which came about during
the Obama Administration,
a period which doubled
the national debt with nothing
to show for all that spending.
Indeed, despite slashing defense
spending, and doing little
to stabilize key programs
such as Social Security and
infrastructure repair, and despite
excessively high taxes on
individuals and businesses, it
didn’t stop the doubling of the
national debt, from about $10
trillion to approximately $20
trillion.
The Center on Budget and
Policy Priorities reports that
“Unless Congress and the
President reach a new budget
agreement, both non-defense
and defense discretionary program
areas will face deep cuts
in 2020 and 2021, forced by tight
funding limits and additional
cuts… Since 2013 lawmakers
of both parties have broadly
agreed that the BCA-mandated
caps are too low to meet
national priorities in both defense
and non-defense areas.
To address this shortfall, Congress
has enacted a series of
temporary budget deals, generally
lasting two years, that
have increased funding above
the sequestration levels. Each
deal increased both the defense
and non-defense discretionary
caps by roughly equal
amounts, recognizing that the
BCA’s sequestration provision
cut defense and non-defense
programs by equal amounts.
The most recent deal covered
fi scal years 2018 and 2019. Unlike
prior agreements, it fully
reversed the harmful discretionary
sequestration cuts and
provided additional resources
for new investments…”
The irrationality and political
cowardice of Congress’s
approach to the budget hurts
the nation across the board.
The inability to timely come
to a broad budget agreement
in compliance with sequestration
results in “continuing
resolutions” which, due
to uncertainty and a lack of
program continuity, results in
higher expenses. The General
Accounting Offi ce describes
the problem: “In all but 4 of
the last 40 years, Congress has
passed continuing resolutions
to keep agencies running between
budgets. Without appropriations
or a CR, the government
may partially shut down.
We testifi ed that CRs, possible
shutdowns, or both create uncertainty
and ineffi ciency for
agencies. For example, our
past work found that agencies
have reported delays and rework
in contracts, grants, and
hiring.”
A Heritage study of this
process provides one example:
“Continuing resolutions
impose a considerable cost on
the military’s readiness levels
through loss of training time,
delayed maintenance, and
delayed availability of new
ships.”
The point is hammered
home by an American Enterprise
study:
“Continuing resolutions
negatively impact the military
in three main ways. First, because
CRs freeze individual
appropriations accounts at last
year’s levels, tens of billions
of dollars will be misaligned.
For instance, though the difference
between the 2020 requested
level of $750 billion
and the 2019 spending level of
$716 billion is only $34 billion,
the actual effect of the CR is
greater because the additional
funding is misaligned compared
to the budget request—
and often at a lower level. This
misalignment negatively affects
all accounts, but particularly
creates problems
for troop training and maintenance
of equipment and facilities—
the core of military
readiness. Near-term readiness
is perishable and must be
constantly maintained for the
“fi ght tonight” or it is lost. It
takes longer to rebuild readiness
than to maintain it. Second,
continuing resolutions
do not allow the military to
start new weapons programs
or increase the production of
existing weapons. This year,
that means hundreds of new
programs necessary for regaining
the military’s edge
against Russia and China will
not be able to move forward
until the CR is lifted. Third,
by injecting uncertainty into
every process, these spending
freezes create signifi cant
sums of fi nancial and personnel
waste through duplication
of work, higher prices, and
contracting delays.”
/www.bronxnet.org
/www.bronxnet.org
/bronxnet.org