TEXAS

 

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

 

• Texas will lose more than $942 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
• Funding for special education programs will be cut by more than $633 million in Texas;
• Texas school improvement programs will lose more than $339 million; and
• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by more than $472 million in Texas.

 

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

 

• Texas will lose more than $63 million in WIC funding, and 72,900 people will be cut from the program;
• In Texas, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose more than $241 million; 
• Roughly 1,900 children in Texas will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 8,800 will lose access to the program in 2010; and
• In Texas, 15,900 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

 

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

 

• Roughly 25,000 families in Texas will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by more than $3 million in Texas; and
• In Texas, Community Development programs will be cut by more than $592 million. 

 

HEALTH: The budget would cut funding in Texas 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 Texas. 

 

• Texas will lose more than $38 million in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for Texas will be cut by more than $2 billion[3]; and 

• 111,600 children or 26,900 seniors in Texas could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

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

 

• Texas will spend more than $1 billion for the proposed increase in military spending[4]; and
• More than $11 billion of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from Texas.