MISSOURI

 

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

 

• Missouri will lose nearly $220 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
• Funding for special education programs will be cut by almost $149 million in Missouri;
• Missouri school improvement programs will lose almost $71 million; and

• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by nearly $113 million in Missouri.

 

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

 

• Missouri will lose $10.3 million in WIC funding, and 11,200 people will be cut from the program;
• In Missouri, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose almost $60 million; 
• Almost 500 children in Missouri will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 2,300 will lose access to the program in 2010; and

• In Missouri, 6,100 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

 

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

 

• 7,100 families in Missouri will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by $3.8 million in Missouri; and

• In Missouri, Community Development programs will be cut by almost $182 million. 

 

HEALTH: The budget would cut funding in Missouri 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 Missouri. 

 

• Missouri will lose $6 million in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for Missouri will be cut by more than $1 billion[3]; and 

• 40,400 children or 7,300 seniors in Missouri could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

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

 

• Missouri will spend more than $349 million for the proposed increase in military spending[4]; and

• $2.7 billion of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from Missouri.