DELAWARE

 

The President’s budget makes drastic cuts in funding for programs that matter to families in Delaware.  These cuts will shift responsibility for funding these priorities onto the already cash-strapped state.  Since Delaware will not be able to provide the same level of services with less federal funding, the budget cuts will force the state to 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 Delaware in 2006, with the cuts getting bigger in later years.  No program, including K-12, will be spared. 

 

• Delaware will lose more than $40 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
• Funding for special education programs will be cut by more than $22 million in Delaware;
• Delaware school improvement programs will lose more than $20 million; and
• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by almost $22 million in Delaware.

 

 

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

 

• Delaware will lose almost $1.5 million in WIC funding, and 1,500 people will be cut from the program;
• In Delaware, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose $6.6 million; 
• More than 60 children in Delaware will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 300 will lose access to the program in 2010; and
• In Delaware, 1,400 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

 

 

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

 

• 800 families in Delaware will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by $500,000 in Delaware; and
• In Delaware, Community Development programs will be cut by more than $21 million. 

 

 

HEALTH:  The budget would cut funding in Delaware 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 Delaware. 

 

• Delaware will lose almost $2 million in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for Delaware will be cut by almost $109 million[3]; and 

• 3,300 children or 700 seniors in Delaware could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

 

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

 

• Delaware will spend nearly $109 million for the proposed increase in military spending[4]; and

• More than $853 million of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from Delaware.