SOUTH DAKOTA

 

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

 

• South Dakota will lose more than $65 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
• Funding for special education programs will be cut by more than $21 million in South Dakota;
• South Dakota school improvement programs will lose more than $21 million; and
• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by more than $19 million in South Dakota.

 

FAMILY SERVICES: Programs providing needed services to low-income families in South Dakota 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 Dakota will lose more than $13 million in WIC funding, and 1,700 people will be cut from the program;
• In South Dakota, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose more than $9 million; 
• Roughly 79 children in South Dakota will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 400 will lose access to the program in 2010; and
• In South Dakota, 600 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

 

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

 

• Roughly 1,000 families in South Dakota will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by more than $1 million in South Dakota; and
• In South Dakota, Community Development programs will be cut by more than $22 million. 

 

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

 

• South Dakota will lose roughly $200 thousand in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for South Dakota will be cut by more than $110 million[3]; and 

• 4,000 children or 800 seniors in South Dakota could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

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

 

• South Dakota will spend more than $31 million for the proposed increase in military spending[4]; and
• More than $243 million of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from South Dakota.