Facts and Figures.
WISCONSIN
The
President’s budget makes drastic cuts in funding for programs that matter to
families in Wisconsin. These cuts will shift
responsibility for funding these priorities onto the already cash-strapped
state. Since Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin in 2006, with the cuts getting
bigger in later years. No program, including K-12, will be spared.
- Wisconsin will lose more than $197 million
in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
- Funding
for special education programs will be cut by more than $138 million in Wisconsin;
- Wisconsin school improvement programs
will lose more than $61 million; and
- Vocational
and adult education programs will be cut by more than $102 million in Wisconsin.
FAMILY
SERVICES: Programs
providing needed services to low-income families in Wisconsin 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.
- Wisconsin will lose more than $8 million
in WIC funding, and 9,300 people will be cut from the program;
- In Wisconsin, Children and Family services
(including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children)
would lose more than $46 million;
- Roughly
378 children in Wisconsin will lose access to Head Start
in 2006[2],
and 1,800 will lose access to the program in 2010; and
- In Wisconsin, 4,500 children will lose
child care assistance in 2009.
HOUSING
AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: The President’s budget targets housing and community
development programs in Wisconsin for funding cuts in 2006 and beyond.
- Roughly 4,900
families in Wisconsin will lose rental assistance
vouchers;
- The Low
Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by nearly $6
million in Wisconsin; and
- In Wisconsin, Community Development
programs will be cut by nearly $160 million.
HEALTH: The budget would cut funding in Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin.
- Wisconsin will lose nearly $2 million in
HIV/AIDS funding;
- Medicaid
funding for Wisconsin will be cut by more than $643 million[3];
and
- 28,700
children or 3,500 seniors in Wisconsin could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed
in 2010.
PENTAGON: While taxpayers in Wisconsin would lose local services, they
will pay increasingly more for the Pentagon.
- Wisconsin will spend more than $319 million
for the proposed increase in military spending[4];
and
- More than
$2.6 billion of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will
come from Wisconsin.