President’s budget bill would level-fund CDBGs

The $3.77 trillion federal budget proposal for fiscal 2014 that President Barack Obama sent to Congress on April 10 includes funding for several programs that are important to municipalities.
 
The budget would level-fund the Community Development Block Grant program at $3 billion, but designate $200 million for competitive grants to reduce blighted properties, thereby reducing the amount available for distribution to municipalities through the current funding formula.
 
The Low-Income Heating Assistance Program would be cut by 13 percent.
 
The nation’s previously enacted two-year surface transportation bill, known as MAP-21, would be fully funded, with $50 billion directed through a new program called Immediate Transportation Investment, $4 billion in competitive grants available for qualifying highway, transit, port and rail projects, and $2 billion in competitive grants to state and local transportation agencies to spur innovative projects.
 
The Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund and the Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund would be cut by 25 percent and 11 percent, respectively, while the Brownfields Program would be cut by 11 percent.
 
The president’s budget would allocate $1 billion to the competitive Race to the Top education initiative, almost doubling the enacted amount for the current year, and shift its focus to the reform of postsecondary education. The budget would increase Head Start funding slightly, to $9 billion, and designate $75 billion over the next decade to provide high-quality preschool for every low- and moderate-income 4-year-old.
 
Both the COPS Hiring Grant program and the Byrne Justice Assistance Grants would see modest funding increases, and $150 million would be allocated for the creation of a Comprehensive School Safety Program associated with the COPS office.
 
The budget includes $580 billion in projected additional revenue over the next decade generated by imposing a cap on itemized deductions claimed by those in higher income brackets. This limit would apply to the interest on tax-exempt municipal bonds.
 
The House and the Senate released budget proposals earlier this year, and in late April were planning to begin a conference in an attempt to reconcile the differences between the two versions.
 
Congress has not passed a budget for several years. Instead, the federal government has been funded through a series of six-month continuing resolutions.