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Rural areas can't lose developmentalsupport
Tuesday, April 29, 2008 ST. CLOUD, MN 27,888 (1 5) Newspaper (D) 48 Center For Rural Affairs
have any tcntm,they don't haw: churches, they don't have hospitals, they don't have schools, they don't have water?" President Bush's proposed Harkin's analysis is more than budget for 2009 zeros out fund- accurate - it is a snapshot of ing for 20 important rural d e what is already happening to our velopment programs. That is the most rural communities. And finding of the Center for Rural the rapid decline in ruralgiven Maits' m n t l y published "Rural development funding, it's apparBrief7 ent the federal gcn~mmentis It's crucial for the long-term waking away from any commithealth and viability of rural ment to the future of our rural communities that we create opcommunities and the 60 million portunities, y r a t e m ~ d t hand people who call rural America build assets or individuds, but if funding for rural development home. Elisha Greeley Smith keeps beiig neglected, our rural , communities will continue to Lincoln, Neb. decline. The less we invest now in rural development, the more our rural communities' infrastructure deteriorates and the mom it till cost in the long run.As with previous budnets, the 2009budnet recommends ktmination ofnumerous federal rival development and rural asset-building programs. Adoption of the administration's 2009 budget would cause total rural develop ment funding to be 72 percent less than its 2003 level. Sen. Tom Harkin was recently quoted in The Des Moines Register saying 'What good does it do ifwe keep giving more money to farmers but they don't