Dent County residents and institutions may face tighter budgets if recommendations submitted by President Donald Trump to Congress are enacted. Trump’s proposed short-form budget, titled “America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again,” reduces or cuts many programs with a local footprint.
• Trump’s budget recommends a total of $15.1 billion cut from the Department of Health and Human Services, including the elimination of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. LIHEAP is locally administered by the South Central Missouri Community Action Agency and provides low-income residents with funds to purchase fuel for winter home heating, as well as for energy for home cooling in summer. SCMCAA’s Energy Director Todd Richardson reports 737 residents in Dent County received assistance through the program last year, 503 of which were either elderly or disabled.
Richardson says the SCMCAA’s weatherization program is also likely to be eliminated in the new budget. That program helps make the homes of low income residents more energy efficient to reduce their regular utility bills. Sixteen Dent County residents received weatherization services through SCMCAA from July 1, 2015, to June 30, 2016.
Trump’s budget recommends LIHEAP’s elimination because it says the program is “unable to demonstrate strong performance outcomes.” The program cost the federal government $3.3 billion last year.
• A total of $6.2 billion is recommended cut from the Development of Housing and Urban Development including the elimination of the Community Development Block Grant Program.
CDBG provides communities with resources to address a wide range of unique infrastructure and development needs. In the past, CDBG funds have provided $250,000 to the Salem Community Center @ the Armory for accessibility improvements, $176,000 to the City of Salem for improved storm water drainage, and $200,000 to help build the Bunker Fire Station. Greene County-based Ozarks Food Harvest, a key partner of the Shepherd’s Nook Food Pantry, is also a beneficiary of CDBG. Christine Temple of Ozarks Food Harvest reports the organization has received $163,000 in CDBG funding since 2008, with another $18,000 for the coming school year. Temple says those funds have gone exclusively to provide weekend meals to children through a backpack program in the Springfield area.
“Anytime we lose a source of funding, it puts stress on our operation and that may harm our ability to support our outlying pantries,” Temple says. “We understand this is a preliminary budget and we are hopeful our constituents will contact their representatives to urge them to include funding the program in a final budget.”
The Dent County Fire Protection District is further currently applying for a $350,000 in CDBG funds for improvements needed to the district’s headquarters. Kelly Sink-Blair of the Meramec Regional Planning Commission reports the fire district’s current application will not be effected by the budget recommendations.
Elimination of the program will result in a projected savings of $3 billion. The budget calls for the action because CDBGs are “not well-targeted to the poorest populations and has not demonstrated results.”
• Funding for renewal of the Secure Rural Schools Act was not included by Trump in his proposed budget. Since 2000, the law has provided direct federal payments as compensation for lost property tax revenue for counties and schools whose districts are home to portions of national forest land. The law will expire this year, and unless reauthorized, Dent County’s 2017 payment of $134,752 will be its last. In the past, the county has received as much as $240,000 through the law. Trump’s proposed budget further recommends unspecified cuts be made to the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program, which helps bolster the county’s general revenue fund. Last year, Dent County collected $136,490 in PILT funds.
• The Americorps national service program has been recommended for elimination, as well as the entirety of the National Corporation for National and Community Service. Americorps connects volunteers to full-time service opportunities in exchange for funds to help pay for college. Dent County’s MU Extension has employed an Americorps volunteer the past two years to promote healthy eating at area grade schools and further establish several community gardens. The new trail systems at Current River and Echo Bluff State Park were also built by Americorps volunteers with the National Civilian Conservation Corps.
The Trump budget does not specify what savings would incur with the elimination of Americorps. It says the program is being eliminated to “move the Nation toward fiscal responsibility” and because it doesn’t fit “the proper role of the Federal Government.”
• A total of $4.7 billion is recommended cut from the Department of Agriculture. Among the drawdowns are $200 million from the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) which provides for healthcare and nutrition of low-income pregnant women, breastfeeding women, and infants and children under the age of five. Also eliminated is $498 million from the USDA’s Water and Wastewater loan and grant program, as well as $95 million from the Rural Business and Cooperative Service program. The budget says, “Rural communities can be served by private sector financing or other Federal investments in rural water infrastructure, such as the Environmental Protection Agency’s State Revolving Funds.”
• A total of $667 million is recommended cut from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, with the explicit mention of the Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program. Dent County hasn’t received funding through the program, however, last year the Dent County Commission voted to authorize the creation of a FEMA Hazard Mitigation Plan to allow local school districts to access infrastructure grants. Over the past 10 years, schools in surrounding counties have received millions through the program including $2.8 million for Texas County, $3 million for Pulaski County and $11 million for Howell County. The Trump budget recommends the program cut because it’s “unauthorized by the Congress.”
Trump’s proposed budget does increase funding to several federal departments including $52 billion for defense, $4.4 billion for veteran’s affairs and $2.8 billion for homeland security. A total of $2.6 billion is specifically tagged to construct a physical wall along the southern border with Mexico.
More details on Trump’s recommendation are expected to be released later this year. Ultimate authority over what programs will be eliminated and how much each department will be funded resides with the House of Representatives.
