ILLINOIS

 

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

 

• Illinois will lose more than $477 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
• Funding for special education programs will be cut by more than $335 million in Illinois;
• Illinois school improvement programs will lose nearly $163 million; and

• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by more than $227 million in Illinois.

 

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

 

• Illinois will lose almost $24 million in WIC funding, and 23,200 people will be cut from the program;
• In Illinois, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose $135 million; 
• More than 1,100 children in Illinois will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 5,200 will lose access to the program in 2010; and

• In Illinois, 23,000 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

 

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

 

• Nearly 16,000 families in Illinois will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by almost $10 million in Illinois; and

• In Illinois, Community Development programs will be cut by more than $447 million. 

 

HEALTH:  The budget would cut funding in Illinois 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 Illinois. 

 

• Illinois will lose more than $20 million in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for Illinois will be cut by more than $1.2 billion[3]; and 

• 49,300 children or 9,000 seniors in Illinois could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

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

 

• Illinois will spend $1 billion for the proposed increase in military spending[4]; and

• More than $8 billion of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from Illinois.