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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- President Bush's proposed budget would cut Utah's federal homeland security funds in half.
The proposed $2 million cut stems from efforts of federal officials to reallocate funds to states with more, higher profiles as possible terrorist targets.
"There are a lot of things that won't be fundable with that type of a cut," Verdi White, executive director of Utah's Homeland Security Division, told The Salt Lake Tribune. "There will be things that we have been doing that you won't be able to continue."
Overall, Bush's budget would shift more of the funding burden for providing services from the federal government to state and local governments.
"I characterize it as a continued and deepening of the partnership between the federal government and the states and a continuation of a trend that's been going on for several years of cost shifting to the states," said Iris Lav, deputy director for the Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities think tank.
The Tribune analyzed the budget proposal and concluded the state also would see a 24 percent drop in community block grants, which fuel outreach programs such as food pantries, rental assistance and crisis intervention.
Grants for the Women, Infants and Children nutritional supplement program would decrease 0.35 percent while needs are rising. A fund for public housing would be cut by a half percent and a fund for airport improvements would drop nearly 30 percent.
However, there would be a 6 percent increase for Medicaid grants, a nearly 4 percent boost for food stamp programs and a 19 percent hike for the Children's Health Insurance Program.
Federal transit grants for Utah showed the biggest jump, more than 35 percent, helped by plans to spend $80 million on commuter rail between Ogden and Salt Lake City.
The state will see no more money for the Head Start program than last year, while more students are trying to get into the program.
The Salt Lake office of that program laid off 15 staffers last week after Congress passed a 2006 budget bill slicing Head Start's funding by 1 percent, said Director Erin Trenbeath-Murray, who fears some children may not be allowed into the program if the budget proposal stays the same.
"We're slipping back quickly," says Trenbeath-Murray.
Under the president's budget, grants for Title I programs are about the same as last year, with an $18,000 drop. There is no growth in spending for teacher quality grants and a less than 1 percent increase in funding for special education.
Another hit to the state would come from a nearly 30 percent drop in the Airport Improvement Program.
It's not clear what projects the cut would affect, but Salt Lake City International Airport spokeswoman Barbara Gann said it definitely will impact the airport.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
