Apr 9, 2017 3 min read

Governing can get difficult when politics meet policy. Promises made on the campaign trail don’t always look so promising when they impact real people.

That was the case with the recent attempt to overhaul the nation’s health care system. The campaign promise to repeal and replace Obamacare floundered when the Republican-controlled House of Representatives couldn’t agree on a plan.

The GOP’s far-right Freedom Caucus thought the American Health Care Act didn’t go far enough in gutting Obamacare, while moderate Republicans felt the changes would hurt too many of their constituents, specifically older and poorer Americans.

In reality, most people would probably agree that some changes should be made to Obamacare, but they’re much closer to the middle, rather than subscribing to either “repeal and replace” or the status quo.

The same can be said for spending cuts. On the surface, who wouldn’t want the federal government to control spending and reverse the breakneck speed of the skyrocketing national debt?

Now, where do you start cutting? More importantly, where do you stop?

The Trump administration’s budget released last month zeroed in on a number of domestic programs, including one that most people probably know little about.

The federal Community Development Block Grant program, which has helped counties and municipalities with important revitalization projects for 43 years, faces stiff cuts in President Trump’s budget. The program’s funding this year is set at $3 billion.

So, who cares?

Well, Washington County received more than $3 million last year for community development projects, with California, Canonsburg, Donora, Monongahela and Washington receiving money each year. The other 60 communities received an allocation of $50,000 every four years.

Why does this matter?

Those rutted and uneven sidewalks that stretched up and down North Main Street in Washington years ago were replaced using CDBG funding. Home rehabilitation and blight reduction in the city also are financed through the program, along with the bond refinancing to purchase a new fire truck. And the nearly-completed revitalization project on South Main Street, which will hopefully attract new businesses, happened because of CDBG money.

In Greene County, the county and its three largest municipalities are eligible for individual CDBG grants. Waynesburg Borough and Franklin and Cumberland townships received a total of $510,969 in the federal funds last year. That’s a lot of money, especially when it helps to purchase a new public works pickup truck or upgrade streetlights.

“The money is very important,” Waynesburg Borough Manager Mike Simms said. “If we didn’t get this money, we’d have to draw down money from the general fund to pay those costs.”

And guess who pays the price when municipalities are forced to raid their own budgets to pay for projects they thought would be funded with federal money? You, the local taxpayer.

CDBG is just one of many examples how federal funding is vital for local communities and their residents.

While it might appear to be an easy line item to cut in the federal budget, the loss of this funding and many other domestic programs will have a real impact on people at the bottom.