INDIANA

 

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

 

• Indiana will lose more than $220 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
• Funding for special education programs will be cut by $169 million in Indiana;
• Indiana school improvement programs will lose more than $62 million; and

• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by more than $122 million in Indiana.

 

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

 

• Indiana will lose almost $10 million in WIC funding, and 11,000 people will be cut from the program;
• In Indiana, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose more than $49 million; 
• Almost 400 children in Indiana will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 1,900 will lose access to the program in 2010; and

• In Indiana, 4,600 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

 

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

 

• 6,600 families in Indiana will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by $4.3 million in Indiana; and

• In Indiana, Community Development programs will be cut by more than $167 million. 

 

HEALTH:  The budget would cut funding in Indiana 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 Indiana. 

 

• Indiana will lose almost $4 million in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for Indiana will be cut by nearly $853 million[3]; and 

• 33,100 children or 5,100 seniors in Indiana could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

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

 

• Indiana will spend nearly $293 million for the proposed increase in military spending[4]; and

• $2.5 billion of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from Indiana.