The $368 billion U.S. budget for military spending is affecting the local Athens economy negatively in the 2004 fiscal year. The Appalachian Peace and Justice Network recently showed the Athens community how programs suffer budgets cuts across the county.
Some significant part of what the government spends is lost or wasted
network volunteer Bob Sheak said.
Some money needs to be used on social programs, Sheak said. Monitoring how the military budget is spent could greatly help spending issues.
Network volunteer Sarah Ortner said social services in Athens County have already begun to suffer. One program that has felt the effects of the military spending is Women, Infants and Children. The organization covers basic nutritional needs of low and no income mothers and children in Athens County.
Organization Director Heidi Anderson said the program began in 1974. Completely federally funded, Women, Infants and Children provides monthly food packages valued at about $100 per person to mothers and children in need.
In 2002, the federal grant to the program was about $359,000. In 2003 and 2004, the federal grant of the fiscal year was almost $376,000. During the same time period, as the funding remained the same, the need began to increase.
In 2003 the Women Infants and Children of Athens-Perry served 2
814 people
Ortner said. In the 2004 fiscal year
which began in September
it had already served 2
720 people in just two months.
The Head Start program in Athens also has been affected. Head Start Director of Childhood Development Programs Chris DeLamatre said the program has taken a major hit due to the budget cuts and increasing needs.
Due to the $395,000 in budget cuts, the program had to close its facility in The Plains and stop servicing 81 children.
We have families on a waiting list we could have been able to serve
DeLamatre said.
DeLamatre said the Head Start programs of Appalachia are serving an exceptionally poor area because Appalachia has different needs. Unlike most other places in Ohio, Athens and surrounding communities have no other organizations to rely on.
Critics say we simply do not have the means to fund these programs
Ortner said. However
the military budget demonstrates we do have the funds; we are just spending it irresponsibly.
Athens citizens attended a forum last week hosted by the network on how increased military spending is resulting in decreased domestic and social spending. The organization will have three more forums in Meigs, Vinton and Morgan counties sometime before Christmas, said Christie Truly, program coordinator.
The purpose of the meeting was to spread awareness of how the increased military spending and economic decline causes a decrease in Ohio's domestic spending, Truly said.
But Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Lisbon, said he does not know if there is a direct relationship between military spending and social services money available in Athens County.
It is difficult to say that because of an increase in military spending there is a decrease in social services
