Bush Budget Could Force Tough Decisions
WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 – Under President George W. Bush’s proposed budget for the 2007 fiscal year, some Massachusetts communities could be forced to make tough decisions about which programs they can afford.
In a statement Tuesday, U.S. Rep. John W. Olver (D-Amherst) said the President’s budget would cut federal funds for successful education programs, including college assistance and adult vocational programs.
“The President vows to invest more money in education in his State of the Union address, but then turns around and cuts education by $2 billion in his budget delivered to Congress just a few days later,” Mr. Olver said. “It’s mind-boggling.”
Jack M. Wilson, president of the University of Massachusetts, said he was pleased with Mr. Bush’s proposals to invest in scientific research but disappointed with the cuts to educational financial aid, which he said is key to making higher education “affordable and accessible to everyone.”
“I’m happy on the one hand because I think that the focus he has picked out and the investments in research are sorely needed and will make a very positive impact on our university,” Mr. Wilson said, “but the cuts to financial aid will have a very negative impact on our university and on our students.”
Mr. Bush’s proposed reductions to Medicare and Medicaid are “very shortsighted,” said Daniel Moen, president of Heywood Hospital in Gardner.
“The kind of cuts that he is talking about to the Medicare and Medicaid programs will be difficult for any hospital to handle,” Mr. Moen said. “A good percentage of our volume is Medicare and Medicaid patients, so even small reductions there can have a dramatic impact on hospitals like us.”
Mr. Moen said that the cuts are eroding hospitals’ financial positions and the services they provide over the long run. Not only is Heywood Hospital important for its services, he said, but it’s also important to the economy in north-central Massachusetts.
If Heywood, which is a community-based, not-for-profit hospital, is squeezed further financially “it will impact how successful we are bringing in new technology, physicians and replacing an aging physical plant,” Mr. Moen said. “All can be compromised if the hospital is put in a bad situation financially.”
Mr. Olver said that for those who need it most, quality affordable health care “takes a back seat in this budget proposal. Huge cuts in Medicare come in the wake of problems with the new Medicare prescription drug program.”
“The budget is replete with bad choices for Americans living in or near poverty – like terminating the Community Services Block Grant, which is geared to providing economic self-sufficiency for struggling families,” Mr. Olver said.
The Community Services Block Grant program was cut completely in the President’s proposed 2006 budget, but Congress continued funding the program. The 2007 budget proposal again calls for the program’s elimination.
David Streb, Fitchburg planning coordinator, said the city goes through a planning process to determine what its needs are and uses funds from the Community Services Block Grants to meet those needs.
“For the second year in a row our funds have been cut,” Mr. Streb said. “It’s becoming increasingly difficult to administer the program.”
Mr. Streb said that the city is left to decide on a year-to-year basis which programs will receive funding.
“We’re faced with the difficult decision on what recommendations to make with the limited funding we have available,” Mr. Streb said. “We have to choose between programs that prevent violence in the schools, homeless mentoring programs and overtime drug enforcement for the police.”
According to Rep. Olver’s office, the President’s proposed funding for Community Oriented Policing Services would be reduced by 80 percent, from $509 million in 2006 to $102 million in 2007.
The Community Oriented Policing Services program was initiated under President Clinton as part of his program to put 100,000 more police officers on the street. The program provides grants to police departments that offer compelling plans and proposals for innovation in law enforcement.
“I think in the ’90s the federal government spent a really small amount of money that brought a tremendous amount of stability,” said Edward Cronin, the Fitchburg chief of police. He said that in the 1990s, police officers became better at preventing crime under the program, and that plans to create a regional crime map would be hindered by the proposed cuts.
Mr. Cronin said since 2002, when the national emphasis shifted from street crimes to terrorism, the Fitchburg police department has been back to pre-1990 levels of manpower, before the Community Oriented Policing Services program began.
“I think that homeland security is very important and needs to be targeted,” Chief Cronin said, “but also think that real security starts on the streets, and right now we’ve been totally abandoned by the Bush administration.”
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