MASSACHUSETTS

 

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

 

• Massachusetts will lose nearly $244 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
• Funding for special education programs will be cut by almost $187 million in Massachusetts;
• Massachusetts school improvement programs will lose more than $70 million; and
• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by almost $97 million in Massachusetts.

 

 

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

 

• Massachusetts will lose nearly $9 million in WIC funding, and 9,700 people will be cut from the program;
• In Massachusetts, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose $54 million; 
• 364 children in Massachusetts will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 1,700 will lose access to the program in 2010; and
• In Massachusetts, 6,200 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

 

 

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

 

• 12,600 families in Massachusetts will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by $6.9 million in Massachusetts; and
• In Massachusetts, Community Development programs will be cut by almost $280 million. 

 

 

HEALTH: The budget would cut funding in Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts. 

 

• Massachusetts will lose almost $12 million in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for Massachusetts will be cut by more than $1.2 billion[3]; and 

• 43,600 children or 7,100 seniors in Massachusetts could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

 

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

 

• Massachusetts will spend more than $555 million for the proposed increase in military spending[4]; and
• $4.5 billion of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from Massachusetts.