Actions Speak Louder: State by State analysis

ALASKA

The President’s budget makes drastic cuts in funding for programs that matter to families in Alaska. These cuts will shift responsibility for funding these priorities onto the already cash-strapped state. Since Alaska will not be able to provide the same level of services with less federal funding, the budget cuts will force the state either to reduce funding for schools and leave more people hungry, homeless, cold and uninsured, or to raise state taxes.

EDUCATION: The President’s budget would reduce funding for education and training programs in Alaska in 2006, with the cuts getting bigger in later years. No program, including K-12, will be spared.

Alaska will lose more than $102 million in total elementary and secondary education spending [1] ;
Funding for special education programs will be cut by almost $24 million in Alaska;
Alaska school improvement programs will lose more than $20 million; and
Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by almost $18 million in Alaska.

FAMILY SERVICES: Programs providing needed services to low-income families in Alaska face major cuts in 2006, with the cuts getting bigger over time. Under the President’s budget proposal, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), programs for abused and neglected children, Head Start, and child care assistance programs all face steep cuts.

Alaska will lose almost $3 million in WIC funding, and more than 2,000 people will be cut from the program;
In Alaska, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose more than $6 million;
More than 50 children in Alaska will lose access to Head Start in 2006 [2] , and 200 will lose access to the program in 2010; and
In Alaska, 800 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: The President’s budget targets housing and community development programs in Alaska for funding cuts in 2006 and beyond.

700 families in Alaska will lose rental assistance vouchers;
The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by almost $1 million in Alaska; and
In Alaska, Community Development programs will be cut by more than $14 million.

HEALTH: The budget would cut funding in Alaska for HIV/AIDS treatment services, including funding to help those with HIV/AIDS purchase drugs. President Bush has also proposed major cuts to the Medicaid program in Alaska.

Alaska will lose $300,000 in HIV/AIDS funding;
Medicaid funding for Alaska will be cut by more than $154 million [3] ; and
3,400 children or 1,000 seniors could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010.

PENTAGON: While taxpayers in Alaska would lose local services, they will pay increasingly more for the Pentagon.

Alaska will spend more than $38 million for the proposed increase in military spending [4] ; and
Almost $273 million of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from Alaska.