VERMONT

 

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

 

• Vermont will lose more than $35 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
• Funding for special education programs will be cut by more than $17 million in Vermont;
• Vermont school improvement programs will lose more than $20 million; and
• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by more than $17 million in Vermont.

 

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

 

• Vermont will lose more than $1 million in WIC funding, and 1,400 people will be cut from the program;
• In Vermont, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose more than $6 million; 
• Roughly 44 children in Vermont will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 200 will lose access to the program in 2010; and
• In Vermont, 600 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

 

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

 

• Roughly 1,000 families in Vermont will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by roughly $1 million in Vermont; and
• In Vermont, Community Development programs will be cut by more than $23 million. 

 

HEALTH: The budget would cut funding in Vermont 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 Vermont. 

 

• Vermont will lose roughly $300,000 in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for Vermont will be cut by more than $130 million[3]; and 

• 3,900 children or 1,500 seniors in Vermont could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

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

 

• Vermont will spend roughly $31 million for the proposed increase in military spending[4]; and
• More than $233 million of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from Vermont.