IOWA

 

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

 

• Iowa will lose nearly $109 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
• Funding for special education programs will be cut by more than $80 million in Iowa;
• Iowa school improvement programs will lose more than $32 million; and

• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by nearly $58 million in Iowa.

 

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

 

• Iowa will lose more than $5 million in WIC funding, and 5,600 people will be cut from the program;
• In Iowa, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose more than $26 million; 
• 216 children in Iowa will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 1,000 will lose access to the program in 2010; and

• In Iowa, 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 Iowa for funding cuts in 2006 and beyond. 

 

• 3,800 families in Iowa will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by $3.1 million in Iowa; and

• In Iowa, Community Development programs will be cut by more than $100 million. 

 

HEALTH:  The budget would cut funding in Iowa 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 Iowa. 

 

• Iowa will lose $700,000  in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for Iowa will be cut by more than $386 million[3]; and 

• 14,100 children or 2,600 seniors in Iowa could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

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

 

• Iowa will spend nearly $139 million for the proposed increase in military spending[4]; and

• $1.1 billion of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from Iowa.