WEST VIRGINIA

 

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

 

• West Virginia will lose more than $79 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
• Funding for special education programs will be cut by more than $50 million in West Virginia;
• West Virginia school improvement programs will lose $35 million; and
• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by more than $41 million in West Virginia.

 

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

 

• West Virginia will lose more than $4 million in WIC funding, and 4,200 people will be cut from the program;
• In West Virginia, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose more than $25 million; 
• Roughly 214 children in West Virginia will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 1,000 will lose access to the program in 2010; and
• In West Virginia, 1,900 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

 

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

 

• Roughly 2,600 families in West Virginia will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by more than $1 million in West Virginia; and
• In West Virginia, Community Development programs will be cut by more than $71 million. 

 

HEALTH: The budget would cut funding in West 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 West Virginia. 

 

• West Virginia will lose roughly $700 thousand in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for West Virginia will be cut by more than $377 million[3]; and 

• 15,900 children or 2,600 seniors in West Virginia could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

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

 

• West Virginia will spend more than $55 million for the proposed increase in military spending[4]; and
• More than $431 million of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from West Virginia.