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| Prisons, colleges top states' budget cuts |
| By reuters.com |
| Published: 08/28/2009 |
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Faced with a total budget gap of $215 billion for fiscal years 2009 and 2010, most U.S. states looked to their prison and university budgets for relief, according to a report released on Thursday. At least 18 states raised income or sales taxes to cover budget holes that, when added together, were the equivalent of nearly $700 per man, woman and child in the country, according to the report by the Pew Center on the States. But nearly double that number, some 35 states, cut higher education spending or increased tuition. More than half of the states -- at least 26 -- slashed funding to prisons. Seven cut prison spending by more than 10 percent, and another seven closed prisons entirely. Eighteen states this year asked over 830,000 employees to take furloughs or unpaid leave, Pew said, but tight budgets are also affecting residents, some of them the poorest. In at least four states, patients enrolled in Medicaid, the healthcare program for the poor jointly administered by the states and federal government, must pay more for care and, in at least eight states, patients have seen benefits cut. Read More. |
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