NEW MEXICO

 

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

 

• New Mexico will lose more than $140 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
• Funding for special education programs will be cut by $60 million in New Mexico;
• New Mexico school improvement programs will lose almost $36 million; and

• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by nearly $44 million in New Mexico.

 

FAMILY SERVICES:  Programs providing needed services to low-income families in New Mexico 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 Mexico will lose $5.4 million in WIC funding, and 5,100 people will be cut from the program;
• In New Mexico, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose $26 million; 
• Almost 215 children in New Mexico will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 1,000 will lose access to the program in 2010; and

• In New Mexico, 2,900 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

 

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

 

• 2,400 families in New Mexico will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by almost $1 million  in New Mexico; and

• In New Mexico, Community Development programs will be cut by more than $50 million. 

 

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

 

• New Mexico will lose more than $1 million in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for New Mexico will be cut by more than $444 million[3]; and 

• 15,700 children or 4,000 seniors in New Mexico could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

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

 

• New Mexico will spend almost $65 million for the proposed increase in military spending[4]; and
• Nearly $513 million of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from New Mexico.