SOUTH CAROLINA

 

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

 

• South Carolina will lose more than $161 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
• Funding for special education programs will be cut by more than $116 million in South Carolina;
• South Carolina school improvement programs will lose more than $53 million; and
• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by roughly $90 million in South Carolina.

 

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

 

• South Carolina will lose more than $8 million in WIC funding, and 9,000 people will be cut from the program;
• In South Carolina, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose more than $41 million; 
• Roughly 343 children in South Carolina will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 1,600 will lose access to the program in 2010; and
• In South Carolina, 3,200 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

 

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

 

• Roughly 4,200 families in South Carolina will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by more than $1 million in South Carolina; and
• In South Carolina, Community Development programs will be cut by more than $100 million. 

 

HEALTH: The budget would cut funding in South Carolina 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 South Carolina. 

 

• South Carolina will lose more than $6 million in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for South Carolina will be cut by more than $695 million[3]; and 

• 26,500 children or 6,700 seniors in South Carolina could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

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

 

• South Carolina will spend more than $152 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 South Carolina.