PENNSYLVANIA

 

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

 

• Pennsylvania will lose roughly $399 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
• Funding for special education programs will be cut by more than $281 million in Pennsylvania;
• Pennsylvania school improvement programs will lose nearly $146 million; and
• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by more than $223 million in Pennsylvania.

 

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

 

• Pennsylvania will lose nearly $18 million in WIC funding, and 20,200 people will be cut from the program;
• In Pennsylvania, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose nearly $115 million; 
• Roughly 866 children in Pennsylvania will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 4,000 will lose access to the program in 2010; and
• In Pennsylvania, 9,900 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

 

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

 

• Roughly 14,600 families in Pennsylvania will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by more than $11 million in Pennsylvania; and
• In Pennsylvania, Community Development programs will be cut by more than $527 million. 

 

HEALTH: The budget would cut funding in Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania. 

 

• Pennsylvania will lose more than $21 million in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for Pennsylvania will be cut by more than $2 billion[3]; and 

• 73,100 children or 15,500 seniors in Pennsylvania could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

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

 

• Pennsylvania will spend more than $735 million for the proposed increase in military spending[4]; and
• More than $6 billion of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from Pennsylvania.