CONNECTICUT

 

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

 

• Connecticut will lose more than $123 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
• Funding for special education programs will be cut by almost $88 million in Connecticut;
• Connecticut school improvement programs will lose more than $37 million; and
• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by almost $53 million in Connecticut.

 

 

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

 

• Connecticut will lose more than $4.5 million in WIC funding, and 4,400 people will be cut from the program;
• In Connecticut, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose nearly $26 million; 
• Nearly 200 children in Connecticut will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 900 will lose access to the program in 2010; and
• In Connecticut, 2,000 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

 

 

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

 

• More than 6,000 families in Connecticut will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by $3.5 million in Connecticut; and
• In Connecticut, Community Development programs will be cut by more than $101 million. 

 

 

HEALTH:  The budget would cut funding in Connecticut 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 Connecticut. 

 

• Connecticut will lose more than $9 million in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for Connecticut will be cut by almost $499 million[3]; and 
• More than 14,500 children or 1,700 seniors in Connecticut could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

 

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

 

• Connecticut will spend more than $460 million for the proposed increase in military spending[4]; and

• $3.6 billion of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from Connecticut.