VIRGINIA

 

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

 

• Virginia will lose more than $269 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
• Funding for special education programs will be cut by more than $186 million in Virginia;
• Virginia school improvement programs will lose more than $70 million; and
• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by more than $130 million in Virginia.

 

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

 

• Virginia will lose more than $10 million in WIC funding, and 11,100 people will be cut from the program;
• In Virginia, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose more than $50 million; 
• Roughly 386 children in Virginia will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 1,800 will lose access to the program in 2010; and
• In Virginia, 3,400 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

 

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

 

• Roughly 7,800 families in Virginia will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by more than $3 million in Virginia; and
• In Virginia, Community Development programs will be cut by more than $148 million. 

 

HEALTH: The budget would cut funding in Virginia 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 Virginia. 

 

• Virginia will lose more than $8 million in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for Virginia will be cut by more than $586 million[3]; and 

• 25,700 children or 5,700 seniors in Virginia could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

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

 

• Virginia will spend more than $557 million for the proposed increase in military spending[4]; and
• More than $4 billion of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from Virginia.