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Politicians don't usually take on the elderly, who tend to be more politically active — and vocal than other constituents.

Even former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who seemed to regard it as his duty to challenge programs and groups long regarded as politically sacrosanct, treaded lightly when it came to the elderly, resisting closing centers for them, building nine new ones, and doubling the budget for the Department for the Aging during his tenure at City Hall.

So when Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg proposed cutting the city's budget for programs for the elderly by $26.1 million, or 16 percent, on Wednesday, they and their advocates were stunned.

"As the mayor said in his speech, there are no sacred cows," said Edwin Méndez-Santiago, commissioner of the Department for the Aging. The proposed reduction in services "are just evidence of the level of deficit we're facing," he added.

Bobbie Sackman, the director of public policy for the Council of Senior Centers and Services, said, "We've never seen anything like this — and the big question is why would it be proposed?"

Ms. Sackman, whose group represents 340 centers and groups serving the elderly, continued: "I haven't fully figured it out yet. Maybe he's trying to send a message to the city: We're going to make tough decisions in tough times. We're even going to cut a meal program."

The program that the mayor plans to eliminate for a saving of $6 million provides a weekend meal to 12,000 elderly men and women.

"He's got some nerve!" said Margaret Robinson, an 82-year-old who was eating lunch yesterday at the Leonard Covello Senior Center on East 109th Street in Manhattan.

Mrs. Robinson, who once worked applying gilt to frames in a small factory, said she had not heard of the mayor's proposal to eliminate what government agencies call the "sixth meal" program. She said she uses the meal program because her Social Security check each month is consumed by housing and medical expenses.

"He has plenty to eat in his house, I'm sure," Mrs. Robinson said. "I wish I could staple his mouth shut so he couldn't eat. Then he might understand."

The center, which is operated by the Institute for Puerto Rican/Hispanic Elderly, asks each lunch guest for a 50-cent contribution to help support the meal program. The meals are frozen and several elderly people said yesterday that they heat the meal at home and make it last throughout the weekend.

Yesterday the meal was Salisbury steak with gravy, scalloped potatoes, peas and carrots accompanied by small containers of juice and milk, a slice of bread with margarine and small, rather green tangerines.

The center's director, Sandra Moya, said that 52 of the 130 elderly people who signed in for lunch yesterday took home frozen meals.

Mr. Méndez-Santiago emphasized that the sixth-meal program was new — it was only started last year — and not yet fully in place, with 163 of 340 centers participating. "It's not off the ground, and we do have to make sacrifices," he said. "In doing this, we are making sure the Monday-to-Friday meal programs are not affected."

Along with $12 million in emergency budget cuts that affected the elderly at the end of last year, the new cuts would erase around two-thirds of budget increases for such programs during the Giuliani administration, according to estimates by the Council of Senior Centers and Services.

Mayor Bloomberg's budget proposal also includes plans to increase charges by 10 cents for breakfasts and lunches served at centers for the elderly as well as for meals delivered to home-bound people. The 10- cent increase is expected to cut costs by $1.3 million.

To be sure, several elderly people interviewed at the Covello Center yesterday said they did not always buy the weekend meal. "I use it once in awhile, if they have something I like," said Petra Allende, an 81-year- old former city worker who has a pension and Social Security. "But I'm more fortunate than a lot of people who come here."

Ms. Allende said she was more concerned about other cuts by the mayor, who has also proposed cutting contracts with private groups for various services to the elderly by 2 percent, for a savings of $3.4 million. The Covello Center, which has an annual budget of $291,198 and serves about 200 elderly people, has only five paid staff members. Covello is fortunate, however, in that it is not one of the seven centers for the elderly that the mayor has proposed eliminating. The proposal would transfer the 100,950 meals they serve to other centers and save almost $1 million in salaries, rent and utilities. Mr. Bloomberg would also cut support for four other centers by $370,090, and cancel the opening of four new centers in the fiscal year 2003 for a saving of $1.4 million.

Mr. Méndez-Santiago noted that one center scheduled for closing had already closed temporarily, while two others were open only on the weekends. Three other centers were near centers that were not closing.

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