WYOMING

 

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

 

• Wyoming will lose more than $41 million in total elementary and secondary education spending[1];
• Funding for special education programs will be cut by more than $18 million in Wyoming;
• Wyoming school improvement programs will lose more than $20 million; and
• Vocational and adult education programs will be cut by nearly $17 million in Wyoming.

 

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

 

• Wyoming will lose $1 million in WIC funding, and 1,000 people will be cut from the program;
• In Wyoming, Children and Family services (including Head Start and programs for abused and neglected children) would lose more than $6 million; 
• Roughly 50 children in Wyoming will lose access to Head Start in 2006[2], and 200 will lose access to the program in 2010; and
• In Wyoming, 700 children will lose child care assistance in 2009.

 

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

 

• Roughly 400 families in Wyoming will lose rental assistance vouchers;
• The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be cut by roughly half a million dollars in Wyoming; and
• In Wyoming, Community Development programs will be cut by $15 million. 

 

HEALTH: The budget would cut funding in Wyoming 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 Wyoming. 

 

• Wyoming will lose more than $100,000 in HIV/AIDS funding;
• Medicaid funding for Wyoming will be cut by more than $61 million[3]; and 

• 2,600 children or 400 seniors in Wyoming could be covered by the Medicaid funding cuts proposed in 2010. 

 

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

 

• Wyoming will spend more than $35 million for the proposed increase in military spending[4]; and
• More than $263 million of what Congress has so far allocated for the Iraq War will come from Wyoming.