ALABAMA

 

The President’s budget makes drastic cuts in funding for programs that matter to families in Alabama. These cuts will shift responsibility for funding these priorities onto the already cash-strapped state. Since Alabama 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 Alabama in 2006, with the cuts getting bigger in later years. No program, including K-12, will be spared. 

 

• Alabama will lose nearly $175 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1]

• Funding for special education programs will be cut by almost $120 million in Alabama;
• Alabama school improvement programs will lose more than $65 million; and
• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by almost $100 million in Alabama.

 

FAMILY SERVICES: Programs providing needed services to low-income families in Alabama 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.

 

• Alabama will lose $10.5 million in WIC funding, and more than 10,000 people will be cut from the program;
• In Alabama, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose nearly $54 million; 
• Nearly 500 children in Alabama will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 2,100 will lose access to the program in 2010; and
• In Alabama, 5,400 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

 

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

 

• More than 5,000 families in Alabama will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by almost $1.5 million in Alabama; and
• In Alabama, Community Development programs will be cut by almost $125 million. 

 

HEALTH: The budget would cut funding in Alabama 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 Alabama. 

 

• Alabama will lose almost $4 million in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for Alabama will be cut by more than $644 million[3]; and 
• More than 41,000 children or almost 6,500 seniors could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

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

 

• Alabama will spend more than $180 million for the proposed increase in military spending[4]; and
• $1.5 billion of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from Alabama.