County Executive Falk: Release Letter to President Bush Protesting Proposed Cuts to Block Grants

Contact:
Lesley Sillaman, Office of the County Executive (608) 267-8823

Madison – Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk today released the following letter, sent to President Bush this week, urging him to reconsider his proposal to cut funding to Medicaid, Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) and HOME funding.

The text of the letter is attached below.

January 24, 2005

President George W. Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Bush:

The purpose of my letter is to respectfully respond to recent news articles announcing your intentions to submit a 2006 budget to Congress that will cut or delete several federal programs including Medicaid, Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) and HOME funding. Harming these programs places funding-strapped state and local governments in jeopardy, hurts the communities they serve and creates new burdens on state and local taxpayers.

No more specific information is available on your plans for Medicaid except that you might consider converting it into state block grant programs. We need more information about this major change to determine its impact on children and families in need of health care services in Dane County. So this letter will focus on the funding cuts to CDBG and HOME, and will demonstrate precisely what the impact will be to the citizens of Dane County, Wisconsin.

In 2005, Dane County’s HUD funds were cut by 5% from 2004 funding levels. Dane County received $1,258,615, in CDBG funds that will be distributed for providing affordable housing for low income persons, creating jobs and providing vital public services. These include $500,000 for the construction of a neighborhood center serving many of the poorest children in Dane County and money to fund four units that are neighbor-owned and affordable housing that will be rented to low income families; the $586,718 in HOME program funds will be utilized for the construction of homes for low income persons, the rehabilitation of housing and providing mortgage down payment assistance for low income persons to purchase their first home.

In short, these two programs help 200,000 people and the communities in which they live.

We understand your intention is to cut the CDBG program by over 50% and the HOME program by 4% or greater. A 50% cut to CDBG would result in an estimated loss of $625,000 to Dane County and a 4% cut to HOME is a $23,000 loss. These cuts would devastate the effectiveness of these important programs.

We urge you to reconsider and withdraw these reduction proposals before your budget is introduced to Congress.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely yours,

Kathleen M. Falk
Dane County Executive

Cc:
Wisconsin Congressional Delegation
Helene Nelson, Secretary, WI Dept. of Health and Family Services
David Storey, Acting Secretary, WI Dept. of Commerce
Antonio Riley, Director, WI Housing and Economic Development Authority
Aaron Olver, Executive Assistant, WI Dept. of Commerce