UTAH

 

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

 

• Utah will lose more than $99 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
• Funding for special education programs will be cut by more than $71 million in Utah;
• Utah school improvement programs will lose nearly $26 million; and
• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by nearly $54 million in Utah.

 

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

 

• Utah will lose more than $4 million in WIC funding, and 5,600 people will be cut from the program;
• In Utah, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose more than $19 million; 
• Roughly 155 children in Utah will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 700 will lose access to the program in 2010; and
• In Utah, 1,300 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

 

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

 

• Roughly 1,800 families in Utah will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by more than $1 million in Utah; and
• In Utah, Community Development programs will be cut by roughly $55 million. 

 

HEALTH: The budget would cut funding in Utah 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 Utah. 

 

• Utah will lose more than $1 million in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for Utah will be cut by more than $253 million[3]; and 

• 8,400 children or 1,900 seniors in Utah could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

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

 

• Utah will spend more than $91 million for the proposed increase in military spending[4]; and
• More than $714 million of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from Utah.