RHODE ISLAND

 

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

 

• Rhode Island will lose more than $49 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
• Funding for special education programs will be cut by more than $29 million in Rhode Island;
• Rhode Island school improvement programs will lose more than $20 million; and
• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by more than $27 million in Rhode Island.

 

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

 

• Rhode Island will lose nearly $2 million in WIC funding, and 1,900 people will be cut from the program;
• In Rhode Island, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose more than $11 million; 
• Roughly 88 children in Rhode Island will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 400 will lose access to the program in 2010; and
• In Rhode Island, 1,400 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

 

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

 

• Roughly 1,700 families in Rhode Island will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by more than $1 million in Rhode Island; and
• In Rhode Island, Community Development programs will be cut by more than $42 million. 

 

HEALTH: The budget would cut funding in Rhode Island 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 Rhode Island. 

 

• Rhode Island will lose more than $1 million in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for Rhode Island will be cut by more than $249 million[3]; and 

• 8,400 children or 1,200 seniors in Rhode Island could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

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

 

• Rhode Island will spend roughly $81 million for the proposed increase in military spending[4]; and
• Roughly $608 million of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from Rhode Island.