OKLAHOMA

 

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

 

• Oklahoma will lose more than $169 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
• Funding for special education programs will be cut by nearly $97 million in Oklahoma;
• Oklahoma school improvement programs will lose more than $55 million; and
• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by more than $75 million in Oklahoma.

 

 

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

 

• Oklahoma will lose nearly $9 million in WIC funding, and 7,800 people will be cut from the program;
• In Oklahoma, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose roughly $40 million; 
• Roughly 377 children in Oklahoma will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 1,800 will lose access to the program in 2010; and
• In Oklahoma, 4,200 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

 

 

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

 

• Roughly 4,000 families in Oklahoma will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by more than $1 million in Oklahoma; and
• In Oklahoma, Community Development programs will be cut by more than $80 million. 

 

 

HEALTH: The budget would cut funding in Oklahoma 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 Oklahoma. 

 

• Oklahoma will lose roughly $2 million in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for Oklahoma will be cut by more than $496 million[3]; and 

• 24,300 children or 5,300 seniors in Oklahoma could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

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

 

• Oklahoma will spend more than $234 million for the proposed increase in military spending[4]; and
• More than $1 billion of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from Oklahoma.