BUSH’S BUDGET SHORT-CHANGES LOCAL COMMUNITIES
This week President Bush unveiled his 2008 budget, in which he proposes eliminating core funding of local resources for the nation’s neediest communities.
The president’s budget proposal would completely eliminate the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG), which provides low-income community resources in 99 percent of all U.S. counties, including Crawford, Perry and Spencer. In addition, the administration’s proposal calls for a 40 percent cut to the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) and a 14 percent drop in the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) compared to 2007.
“Programs targeted to low-wage workers and retirees on fixed incomes are absent from our president’s budget plans,” said Larry K. Kleeman, Executive Director of Lincoln Hills Development Corporation (LHDC). “These proposed cuts would endanger services throughout our service area and could result in the closing of some of our offices in English, Rockport and Tell City .”
Community Services Block Grants support a wide variety of community-based initiatives nationwide. This funding is allocated to LHDC to coordinate programs and leverages new strategies for approximately 3,700 low-wage families in Crawford, Perry and Spencer Counties . CSBG funds are also used locally to support partnerships and create economic development opportunities for individuals, families and communities.
Last year the Weatherization program helped nearly 100,000 low-income households permanently lower their energy use by 30 percent. “By slashing program funding, an estimated 40,000 low-wage Americans, and approximately 1,061 Hoosier households awaiting Weatherization will be kept waiting.”
“This winter, the retirees and low-wage workers who qualify for LIHEAP are struggling to make ends meet with far less help than last year,” Kleeman said. “The Department of Energy predicts household electricity bills will go up by 5 percent next fiscal year, fuel oil prices will remain essentially the same and natural gas prices may be 4 percent lower.”
“We are confident Congress will reject these cuts,” Kleeman said. “Our members of Congress understand what a difference this funding makes in our communities. They also know that cutting our core support would soon mean the loss of almost nine (9) times as much funding from local and private matching funds that our agency raises for local services.”