NEW JERSEY

 

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

 

• New Jersey will lose nearly $319 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
• Funding for special education programs will be cut by almost $238 million in New Jersey;
• New Jersey school improvement programs will lose almost $88 million; and

• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by more than $137 million in New Jersey.

 

FAMILY SERVICES: Programs providing needed services to low-income families in New Jersey 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 Jersey will lose $12 million in WIC funding, and 12,000 people will be cut from the program;
• In New Jersey, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose almost $65 million; 
• More than 420 children in New Jersey will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 2,000 will lose access to the program in 2010; and

• In New Jersey, 5,200 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

 

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

 

• 11,500 families in New Jersey will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by $6.4 million  in New Jersey; and

• In New Jersey, Community Development programs will be cut by almost $280 million. 

 

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

 

• New Jersey will lose more than $26 million in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for New Jersey will be cut by more than $1 billion[3]; and 

• 34,300 children or 6,400 seniors in New Jersey could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

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

 

• New Jersey will spend more than $849 million for the proposed increase in military spending[4]; and

• $6.7 billion of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from New Jersey.