President Bush's plan to shrink the deficit in half over his second term calls for deep cuts in domestic spending.
One recommendation includes cutting a community development program that has poured about 75 million dollars into the state over the past five years.
New Hampshire Public Radio's Dan Gorenstein reports.
Michele Talwani ticks off the types of projects funded by community development block grants.
1:08 Affordable housing rehabs, improvements to water and sewer lines to mobile homes, child care centers, new jobs, or retention of livable wage jobs, jobs with benefits, jobs that people are going to be able to afford their rent or home.
Talwani works for the New Hampshire Community Development Finance Authority.
Her organization is responsible for distributing approximately 10 million dollars a year from the federal community development block grant program, otherwise known as CDBG.
Talwani says there's little doubt the money has had an impact in the state.
T.29
:21 over the last five years approximately 50 million dollars has been distributed through CDBG funds to create 2,205 jobs, as well as over 1600 affordable housing units, not just creation, but rehabilitation of, as well as we have met almost 60 low to moderate income residents needs have been met by the CDBG program.
For the second straight year, the CDBG program is on the chopping block.
Congress approved a 5% cut in 2004.
Now, the President has proposed consolidating it and 17 other economic development programs into one.
In a best case scenario, the move would mean slashing CDBG's budget by one billion dollars.
Linda Mangonis, who works for the city of Keene, says she knows what that kind of cut would mean on the local level.
4:36 it would mean less rehabilitation, it would mean less water projects, less construction of new housing, less funding of emergency centers, community kitchens, other social services, it's been a big part of the capital improvement those services have done.
Currently, about half of the state's CDBG grants go toward economic development projects like job creation and construction of commercial buildings.
The other half funds the creation and rehabilitation of affordable housing, improvements to sewers and sidewalks, as well as community and senior centers.
In addition to reducing its budget, the President's proposal would shift the CDBG program from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Opponents see this as a way to dump the program's affordable housing component.
Most observers agree New Hampshire already faces an affordable housing shortage.
And the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority's Dean Christon says less money would hurt.
4:00 if there is a general cut and a refocus away from that, that would be problematic...NH has always had a limited supply of public resources to do affordable housing initatives and that would take some additional resources away from the table, and clearly that would be difficult to deal with.
The Bush Administration says under the President's proposal the federal government isn't going to tell communities to spend its money on economic development, or housing or infrastructure improvements.
Sandy Berua of the Commerce Department says communities will make those decisions.
Berua says the CDBG program and the 17 other economic development programs are up for consolidation because the Administration found them to be either redundant or ineffective.
Berua says a study done by the President's Office of Management and Budget found that the CDBG grants had lost their focus.
3:03 what OMB found is that about 38% of all CDBG dollars are going to communities that have poverty rates below the national average and not the communities that have the most difficult poverty situations.
5:38...I don't understand where they are getting their data...
That's Shawndra Western, she's the executive director of the National Community Development Association.
...b/c if you want ot go on HUD's website you can see that says in FY04 94.5% of the CDBG money was allocated to communities that benefit low and moderate income persons...I don't know how much more effective that can be.
Western warned the proposed budget cuts would drastically change how communities look, and the services that lower income people receive.
But she said the biggest difference may be the money that doesn't get leveraged as a result of fewer CDBG dollars.
In New Hampshire for example, the Community Development Finance Authority reports every CDBG dollar spent leverages another five.
For NHPR News, I'm DG.
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Google
Yahoo