Proposal a preliminary step in federal budget process.

The cuts suggested in President Donald Trump’s budget proposal have the potential to touch many areas of life in the Erie region, from legal services for the poor to block grants that have assisted local infrastructure projects.

They include cutting the Environmental Protection Agency by more than 30 percent, including eliminating funding for “specific regional efforts such as the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative,” according to the proposal Trump submitted to Congress Thursday.

The budget proposal also suggests cutting more than 20 percent of funding for U.S. Departments of state, agriculture and labor, and would cut entirely programs including the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts.

But the proposed budget would also grow military spending dramatically and provide additional funding for immigration enforcement, including $2.6 billion that would go in part toward paying for the Mexican border wall that was a key part of Trump’s campaign platform.

In keeping with another theme from the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump’s proposal would also boost spending to support opioid misuse prevention and addiction treatment.

And the budget would provide a sizable influx of cash for the Department of Veterans Affairs "to improve patient access and timeliness of medical care services."

Trump’s proposal serves as a starting point for Congress, which is responsible for federal appropriations. Many of the suggested cuts in the proposal are likely to face strong resistance from legislators.

Here are a few areas local officials said would be affected by the proposed budget:

Community Development Block Grants

Trump’s proposed budget would eliminate spending for Community Development Block Grants, which are provided through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“The Federal Government has spent over $150 billion on this block grant since its inception in 1974, but the program is not well-targeted to the poorest populations and has not demonstrated results,” the proposal states.

Chris Mong, the city of Erie's director of economic and community development, said the proposed cuts to the CDBG program would be "devastating" to Erie and cities across the U.S.

Mayor Joe Sinnott's administration publicly unveiled its most recent CDBG funding plan last week. Erie's $2.8 million allocation of CDBG funds for 2017 would fund neighborhood centers, youth programs, housing rehabilitation, community policing and various nonprofits and community organizations.

Trump's proposed budget does not affect the city's current CDBG plan, because that money was part of the 2017-18 federal budget, which has already been approved.

"This would be a travesty," said Mong, whose office crafts annual CDBG plans for the city. "It's disheartening really. If these cuts are made it will hurt communities across the country. We'll have to see how it turns out."

Erie also counts on CDBG dollars each year for community projects like street paving, sidewalk improvements, housing programs and homeless shelters.

In addition, the city for years has earmarked a portion of its yearly CDBG allocation to help redesign thousands of curb ramps throughout Erie and install new ramps at intersections that did not have them, because of a federal consent decree.

"The summer rec programs, employment and training programs at the various agencies, all the infrastructure work we do," Mong said. "And we've already seen (CDBG funding) declining. I was cautiously optimistic maybe we'd see more funding."

City statistics show that the city received $3.6 million in CDBG funds in 2006, the year Sinnott took office. That means the city's block grant funding has dropped by roughly 22 percent since then.

Elimination of Community Development Block Grants would also hurt local municipalities that rely on the money for improvements that their budgets can't fund, municipal leaders said.

Girard Township receives between $80,000 and $90,000 in CDBG funds annually and primarily uses the money to improve roads and to fund low-income housing rehabilitation, township Supervisor Sandra Anderson said.

"We've been able to do paving, handicap accessibility modifications for the restrooms at the township building, and many housing rehabilitations for people in the township. It's used for projects that primarily benefit low- and moderate-income residents."

In 2015 alone, Erie County municipalities benefited from more than $850,000 in CDBG money, according to county documents. Many of them, such as Girard Township, went for Trump in the November election.

Great Lakes

The president's budget also eliminates funding for Great Lakes cleanup efforts.

Erie County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper said the county uses that money — about $200,000 annually — to monitor the quality of lake water along beaches at Presque Isle State Park and in North East. Swimming advisories posted at Presque Isle are based on the water testing.

"State regulations require us to monitor those," Dahlkemper said. "How are we going to abide by that mandate without the funding?"

But Dahlkemper, a former congresswoman, said there is not yet cause for panic.

"This is the president's proposal," she said. "There is a long way to go before any of this would become reality. There's going to be a lot of competing interests within Congress. We've got to talk to our delegation and make sure they understand how significant these cuts would be to our region."

Legal Services

The Trump plan also proposes eliminating the Legal Services Corp., a federal program that provides about 40 percent of the funding for Northwestern Legal Services.

Northwestern Legal Services provides civil legal assistance, including help with protection from abuse orders and with foreclosure proceedings, to low-income people in 10 counties in northwest Pennsylvania.

The organization handled about 4,000 cases in 2016, Executive Director Robert Oakley said.

Oakley said the budget proposal would lead to a reduction of about 40 percent of the organization’s budget and, as a result, a reduction in services.

“I think that it’s an imperative to have legal aid in the community,” he said. “People deserve to have access to the courts, and unfortunately we are nonprofit and dependent upon funding, primarily government funding and other grants, so we are subject to this type of thing.”

The budget for the Legal Services Corp. has been threatened before, however, and has been saved from elimination in the past, Oakley said.

“I have every respect for the Congress to do the right thing,” he said. “We have wide bipartisan support and, quite frankly, the funding of Legal Services Corporation is not that gigantic that it’s going to make a big difference” in the federal budget.

Education

Public schools would also suffer under Trump's proposed budget.

It would eliminate funding for some mandated special-needs programs, which would force school districts to find other revenue to continue to provide those services. And it would eliminate funding for optional programs, which could lead to the elimination of those services.

Much of the schools-related funding would be cut because of reductions in Medicaid. The budget proposal would eliminate $140 million in funding for Pennsylvania's school-based Access program, according to the Pennsylvania School Boards Association. Medicaid funds the Access program.

The proposed changes to the Affordable Care Act and the elimination of Medicaid expansion would also affect Medicaid funding for the Access program, the association said.

The Access program helps pay for mandated services for children with special needs. The services include those for psychiatric and psychological care and nursing care.

The Access program provides the Erie School District $500,000 a year, said the district's chief financial officer, Brian Polito.

"The services we provide our special needs and early intervention students with this funding are critical," he said in an email. "If the program is eliminated, we would have no choice but to find a way to fund the expenses locally."

The Erie School District is already facing a projected deficit of $10 million in 2017-18, and is seeking additional state aid to stay solvent.

Polito said Trump's budget proposal would also eliminate funding for 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program. He said that program funds the district's Gears after-school programs, which focus on science, technology, engineering and math, or S.T.E.M.

"We received $1 million from that grant last year and have $800,000 in the budget this year," Polito said of Gears. "Without funding, those programs would more than likely have to be eliminated."

Trump's budget would benefit charter schools, however, recommending a $168 million increase in funding for the schools and $250 million for a new private school choice program, according to the proposal.

Staff writers Kevin Flowers, Valerie Myers, Nico Salvatori and Ed Palattella contributed to this report.

Madeleine O'Neill can be reached at 870-1728 or by email. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNoneill.