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Aid Agencies Say Bush Cuts Will Hurt

By EVAN LEHMANN, Sun Washington Bureau
Lowell Sun

WASHINGTON — Local groups serving the poor are bristling at President Bush's budget released this week, saying proposed cuts to federal grants could close food pantries, end job-training programs and deplete low-income housing.

Massachusetts stands to lose nearly $38 million from two federal programs created to help economically struggling residents and communities. Bush proposed eliminating one of the programs and deeply cutting the other in his $2.7 trillion budget blueprint for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1.

“It's very bad for us,” said Karen Frederick, executive director of Community Teamwork Inc., organization based in Lowell that aids families in the Merrimack Valley. “I think it's very shortsighted.”

At risk are services from agencies like CTI that help families in crisis find food, temporary shelter and receive health care and fuel assistance. Longer-term services that create jobs, reduce poverty and teach self-sufficiency skills to the poor could also disappear.

“If President Bush has his way, Lowell — and cities like it across the state — will suffer devastating cuts in federal assistance for economic-distress recovery,” said U.S. Rep Marty Meehan, a Lowell Democrat.

The president proposes eliminating or substantially cutting 141 programs deemed ineffective by the White House for a savings of $15 billion. Ending inefficient programs, Bush says, will save taxpayer money and reduce the deficit.

Two of the programs on the chopping block stand out for local officials: the Community Development Block Grant and Community Service Block Grant programs.

Massachusetts received $111 million from the Community Development Block Grant program this year; Lowell was awarded $2.43 million.

Bush proposes cutting the $4.2 billion economic development program by 27 percent, or $1.2 billion, next fiscal year, beginning July 1. The Bay State is slated to receive $89 million, a cut of $22 million.

“Community development block grants (are) the centerpiece of the federal government's efforts to help revitalize and reinvigorate urban communities,” Meehan said. “This program is vital.”

The other program helping poor residents, the Community Service Block Grant program, would be eliminated under the proposed budget.

Massachusetts received $15.7 million in Community Service Block Grant money this year.

As funding for those programs goes down, the number of “new poor” is rising, Frederick said. Rising costs of housing and heating are driving the working poor farther below the poverty line, she said.

The White House says the Community Development Block Grant program “lacks a clear purpose” and “lacks short-term and long-term outcome measures.”

But local officials disagree.

The program helped launch 177 new businesses in Greater Lowell since 2002, creating 304 jobs mostly for minorities and the poor, said Russ Smith, executive director of the Lowell Small Business Assistance Center.

The center, which received $60,000 in community development block grants this year, about one-quarter of its overall funding, scraps for cash every year to stay afloat, Smith said. Federal budget cuts may sink it.

“Every year I have an annual near-death experience,” Smith said.