Mayors criticize proposed cuts in grant program

WASHINGTON – President Bush’s plan to make deep cuts in a popular community development program was harshly criticized by mayors, who said such a move would undermine efforts to provide affordable housing, create jobs and keep other urban renewal efforts afloat.

Mayors and county officials urged Congress on Tuesday to reject Bush’s proposal, part of the administration’s 2006 budget plan.

“This will have a devastating economic impact on communities across this country,” said Don Plusquellic, mayor of Akron, Ohio, and president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley said Bush is seeking to weaken the finances of American cities at a time when mayors are already dealing with budget crunches from mounting homeland security costs.

“These cuts are sad, irresponsible and dishonest,” O’Malley said. “With a budget-cut ax, he is attacking American cities, he is attacking the metropolitan core.”

The Community Development Block Grant program, started in 1974, provides money to more than 1,000 municipalities.

Generally, counties with at least 200,000 residents and cities with at least 50,000 residents automatically receive a grant each year. The government must sign off on a municipality’s plan to ensure money is being used to help low-income residents.

States also get money to disburse to smaller communities, which must apply each year.

The program has been a perennial target of Republican presidents since the Reagan administration, though Congress nearly always restores whatever money the White House wants to cut.

The administration wants to move the $4.7 billion community development program from the Housing and Urban Development Department to the Commerce Department. Commerce would also absorb another 17 community development programs – which disburse an additional $1 billion in grants – from other Cabinet agencies.

Bush would spend $3.7 billion on the new Commerce program – about $2 billion less than the 18 programs together get now.

The cuts are part of a broader effort by the administration to trim the federal government’s record $427 billion budget deficit.

“Spending discipline requires difficult choices. Every government program was created with good intentions, but not all are matching good intentions with good results,” Bush said Tuesday at the Detroit Economic Club.

The mayors group, along with the National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties and several business organizations, urged Bush to leave the block grant program alone.

The groups said the program in 2004 created or retained more than 90,000 jobs.

Cities also often use community development grant money to attract private funding for urban renewal projects. In 2004, every community development grant dollar brought in about $2.79 of private financing, the officials said.

They pointed to numerous projects they said blossomed because of community development dollars, such as a business redevelopment project in Los Angeles that attracted a new supermarket, other stores and restaurants into an underserved neighborhood. The project created more than 500 jobs, the officials said.