NEW HAMPSHIRE

 

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

 

• New Hampshire will lose nearly $52 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
• Funding for special education programs will be cut by almost $32 million in New Hampshire;
• New Hampshire school improvement programs will lose more than $22 million; and

• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by almost $26 million in New Hampshire.

 

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

 

• New Hampshire will lose $1.3 million in WIC funding, and 1,400 people will be cut from the program;
• In New Hampshire, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose $7 million; 
• More than 45 children in New Hampshire will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 200 will lose access to the program in 2010; and

• In New Hampshire, 1,000 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

 

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

 

• 1,600 families in New Hampshire will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by $1.3 million  in New Hampshire; and

• In New Hampshire, Community Development programs will be cut by almost $34 million. 

 

HEALTH: The budget would cut funding in New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire. 

 

• New Hampshire will lose $400,000 million in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for New Hampshire will be cut by more than $165 million[3]; and 

• 4,100 children or 700 seniors in New Hampshire could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

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

 

• New Hampshire will spend almost $88 million for the proposed increase in military spending[4]; and
• More than $680 million of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from New Hampshire.