TENNESSEE

 

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

 

• Tennessee will lose more than $211 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
• Funding for special education programs will be cut by more than $153 million in Tennessee;
• Tennessee school improvement programs will lose more than $69 million; and
• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by more than $119 million in Tennessee.

 

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

 

• Tennessee will lose more than $13 million in WIC funding, and 13,100 people will be cut from the program;
• In Tennessee, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose more than $60 million; 
• Roughly 461 children in Tennessee will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 2,100 will lose access to the program in 2010; and
• In Tennessee, 7,800 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

 

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

 

• Roughly 5,500 families in Tennessee will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by more than $2 million in Tennessee; and
• In Tennessee, Community Development programs will be cut by more than $130 million. 

 

HEALTH: The budget would cut funding in Tennessee 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 Tennessee. 

 

• Tennessee will lose more than $7 million in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for Tennessee will be cut by more than $1 billion[3]; and 

• 45,500 children or 8,900 seniors in Tennessee could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

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

 

• Tennessee will spend more than $297 million for the proposed increase in military spending[4]; and
• More than $2 billion of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from Tennessee.