MINNESOTA

 

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

 

• Minnesota will lose nearly $176 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
• Funding for special education programs will be cut by more than $126 million in Minnesota;
• Minnesota school improvement programs will lose almost $49 million; and

• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by more than $85 million in Minnesota.

 

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

 

• Minnesota will lose almost $9 million in WIC funding, and 9,800 people will be cut from the program;
• In Minnesota, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose more than $36 million; 
• Almost 290 children in Minnesota will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 1,300 will lose access to the program in 2010; and

• In Minnesota, 5,000 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

 

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

 

• 5,400 families in Minnesota will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by $6.6 million in Minnesota; and
• In Minnesota, Community Development programs will be cut by almost $146 million. 

 

HEALTH: The budget would cut funding in Minnesota 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 Minnesota. 

 

• Minnesota will lose $2.4 million in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for Minnesota will be cut by more than $712 million[3]; and 

• 20,400 children or 3,200 seniors in Minnesota could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

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

 

• Minnesota will spend more than $448 million for the proposed increase in military spending[4]; and

• $3.4 billion of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from Minnesota.