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CDBG Cuts Would Hurt City

We have been steadfast over the years in saying the federal budget needs to be tightened.

We’re not sure the Community Development Block Grant program is the best place to start.

Mick Mulvaney, federal Office of Management and Budget director, has said the Trump administration will no longer spend money on programs like CDBG that don’t deliver on their promises. There are thousands of people in Jamestown who would beg to differ with Mulvaney’s assessment that the Community Development Block Grant hasn’t delivered on its promises. For example, hundreds of Jamestown homeowners have been able to have emergency repairs made to their home thanks to the CDBG program. People who struggle to get around can get where they need to in Jamestown due to handicapped accessibility improvements paid for with federal CDBG dollars. Families who have needed a night in a safe house have had a safe place thanks to the CDBG program.

Eliminating the CDBG program might be the only thing Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump have agreed on. Both presidents have said the CDBG program doesn’t do a good enough job of proving that federal dollars are well spent. Perhaps Congress can meet the president in the middle by changing the program to make sure CDBG money is well spent.

Jamestown, and countless communities like it across the United States, need help as they try to remake themselves after decades of economic disinvestment. Eliminating the CDBG program only makes that task harder.

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