ARIZONA

 

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

 

• Arizona will lose more than $264 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
• Funding for special education programs will be cut by $118 million in Arizona;
• Arizona school improvement programs will lose almost $71 million; and
• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by more than $113 million in Arizona.

 

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

 

• Arizona will lose almost $16 million in WIC funding, and 12,700 people will be cut from the program;
• In Arizona, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose more than $52 million; 
• 370 children in Arizona will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 1,700 will lose access to the program in 2010; and
• In Arizona, 4,800 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

 

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

 

• 3,600 families in Arizona will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by $700,000 in Arizona; and
• In Arizona, Community Development programs will be cut by more than $141 million. 

 

HEALTH:  The budget would cut funding in Arizona 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 Arizona. 

 

• Arizona will lose $6.2 million in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for Arizona will be cut by almost $1 billion[3]; and 
• Almost 39,000 children or more than 7,500 seniors could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

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

 

• Arizona will spend more than $252 million for the proposed increase in military spending[4]; and
• More than $2 billion of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from Arizona.