From left to right, Coucilmen Domenic Recchia and Lew Fidler

Watch out Lew Fidler, there’s a new violinist in town. According to local news channel NY1, the Board of Elections is asking the city for “close to $110 million in additional funding” over what the mayor has proposed, and Councilman Domenic Recchia’s not showing them any sympathy. Recchia, in addition to representing District 47, also serves as chairman of the council’s Finance Committee. In response to the BOE’s requests for more funding, he told NY 1 that “I don’t think they are hearing the cry…taxpayers want more for their money.”

To be fair to the BOE, their budget has, so far, been reduced from last year. The board’s Deputy Executive Director Dawn Sandow explained to NY1 that,   “the reductions and underfunding proposed in the mayor’s preliminary budget has put our democracy in peril.”

“We have a constitutional obligation to hold free and fair elections. And these elections are costly,” said New York City Board of Elections President J.C. Polanco to NY1′s Grace Rau.

Coucilman Recchia did make some good points, particularly regarding wasteful spending. Included in the BOE’s counteroffer was a request for $32 million to pay for “support services” from the firm that supplies its voting machines. “This outside contracting has got to stop. It’s going through the sky,” Recchia told NY1.

NY 1: City BOE Makes Plea For $110M In Additional Funds