Bush Budget Unkind to State

Crime-fighting, housing funds cut

By Mike Dorning, Washington Bureau. Tribune staff reporter Courtney Flynn contributed to this report from Chicago

February 3, 2004

WASHINGTON -- An austere budget for domestic spending that President Bush proposed on Monday would reverberate through Illinois with deep cuts in federal aid for fighting street crime and in housing vouchers for low-income families, along with modest trims in myriad services.

The Bush administration's 2005 budget also could endanger plans that state officials have for improvements in the Chicago region's transportation infrastructure, city lobbyists and congressional aides said.

The money for local law enforcement block grants to states and cities will drop to $509 million in 2005 from $884 million in 2004, according to David Yudin, city of Chicago lobbyist.

Bush administration documents estimate that money available for low-income housing vouchers in Illinois would plunge 8 percent from $697 million in 2004 to $641 million in 2005.

But spokesmen for the Chicago Housing Authority and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said public housing cuts would not affect the CHA's ongoing transformation program, which is tearing down and redeveloping public housing units around the city.

Still, homeland security funding for the region would be bolstered through a hefty increase in the nation's anti-terrorism spending and adjustments in the distribution of funds to focus more resources on such "high-threat" areas as the nation's largest cities, said Chicago city officials.

And a commitment by the Bush administration to add $2 billion nationally in aid to school districts with low-income students and special education for disabled students would provide more resources to Chicago schools, city lobbyists said.

But, they added, the city's schools still would not have enough money to meet commitments in Bush's No Child Left Behind education reform for services such as tutoring to children.

A spokeswoman for the Illinois State Board of Education said state officials still were figuring out the impact of the federal education budget, which cuts federal assistance in arts education, school counseling and a host of other grant programs. Overall, the education budget would rise 3 percent, slightly ahead of inflation.

Seeking to control a deficit projected to exceed half a trillion dollars in 2004, Bush has proposed holding domestic discretionary spending down to an increase of 0.5 percent in 2005.

Surrounded by senior citizens, veterans and advocates for public housing, Illinois Democratic Reps. Rahm Emanuel and Jan Schakowsky held a news conference at the Thompson Center denouncing the impact of the budget on the region.

"At a time when so many of our constituents are struggling for jobs, health care, housing, President Bush is squeezing national domestic priorities," Schakowsky said.

But Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.) lauded the Bush administration for its efforts to reduce the federal budget deficit and said the White House's spending plan was "a reflection of prudent priorities--fighting terrorism, defending our homeland, and resisting tax increases to allow our economy to continue its robust growth."

Though the administration vowed not to accept increases in domestic spending beyond those proposed in its budget, the White House in the end still has gone along with higher levels of spending Congress has approved in past years. And the budget provides little new spending for some politically popular programs.

Chief among them is federal highway and public transportation, which the Bush administration budget calls for limiting to $267 billion over the next six years. The House and the Senate are considering legislation that would provide for more than $300 billion.

The difference is potentially significant for Illinois, not only because of its role as a national transportation hub but also because the state's congressional delegation is poised to use the infrequent opportunity to improve Illinois' treatment under the federal transportation program. Once every six years, Congress passes legislation to re-allocate transportation funds. The state's clout in the Capitol has improved since the last re-allocation, with Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) now House speaker and Rep. Bill Lipinski (D-Ill.) a senior member of the Transportation Committee.

A tight transportation budget would reduce the chances of generous federal funding for items on local wish lists such as highway access to O'Hare International Airport from its western side, said one Illinois congressional aide.