Federal Program Used Locally Could Face Deep Cuts
A federal program that pays for roads, sidewalks, youth programs and miscellaneous other services could face substantial cuts in the coming year, as Congress works to slash debt. Local officials are worried that cuts to the Community Development Block Grant Program could translate to cuts in improvement projects and social services.
Here's the story.
About SRTC
SRTC is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Spokane County. Urbanized areas with populations exceeding 50,000 people are required to have an MPO. SRTC was formed to address the county's transportation planning needs. It provides coordination in planning between the public, cities, small towns, the county, the state, transit providers, and tribes.
SRTC offers services including transportation monitoring, transportation modeling, census information analysis, travel demand forecasting, historical traffic count analysis, geographic information systems, and trip generation rates.
2 comments:
I was wondering when they would cut the Community Development Block Grants. With the federal government so far in debt, and they need to cut somewhere, so they cut the programs that help the low income neighborhoods.
I know we have supported the Northeast Community Center with a lot of our CDBG money, and also improvements in the parks and street scapes. Right now a lot of money is being used to make the commercial area in East Hillyard a more attractive place for businesses.
CDBG grants have gone a LONG way in our community. Cuts could have a major impact on the less fortunate neighborhoods. With the City and County also having to trim their budgets, they will be hard pressed to divert money from other sources to fill the needs caused by cuts to the CDBG cuts. As you pointed out @Charles, it's the low income neighoborhoods who will feel it, and a lot of times the young and elderly who are especially effected, such as through cuts at the North East Community Center.
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