President's budget has good, bad news for region

Rep. Ted Strickland opposes the proposal.
STAFF/WIRE REPORTS
WASHINGTON -- Ohio defense programs and some cleanup projects in the state benefited in President Bush's fiscal year 2005 budget while cuts were made to loans for steel companies, Appalachian programs and grants for "empowerment zones" in urban areas.
Meanwhile, federal aid to a farm insurance program that was spearheaded in Pennsylvania and is looking to expand to 12 other states would likely get a significant boost next year under the White House budget plan.
Bush sent his $2.4 trillion budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 to Congress on Monday. It featured big increases for defense and also a record $521 billion deficit.
"This budget is shameful," said Rep. Ted Strickland of Lisbon, D-6th, whose Ohio district includes Columbiana County and a portion of Mahoning County.
"At times like these, the federal government should be doing everything it can to help communities rebound and bring jobs into distressed areas."
The 1,268-page budget document is only a proposal and still must be approved by Congress.
Defense funding
For defense, funding for the Army's newest tank, the M1A2 SEP, would increase 62 percent to $292 million. That would help the Lima Army Tank Plant southwest of Toledo, which makes and upgrades the tanks.
Another big defense winner would be the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton. Funding for the Air Force Materiel Command, which is headquartered at the base, would increase $9.6 billion to $120.5 billion. Wright-Patterson manages more than half of the Air Force Materiel Command's budget.
Bush's proposal also includes more money for the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon. The $289 million amount includes funds to keep the plant on cold standby so it could be restarted, start construction on a plant to convert nuclear waste into a stable form and clean old buildings that once housed centrifuge technology.
USEC Inc., which owns the plant, announced last month that it would build its new commercial uranium enrichment plant at Piketon in part because the president promised to clean the existing centrifuge buildings.
Cuts affecting Ohio, Pa.
Bush's budget proposes a $35 million cut to a program Congress created to help strapped steel companies get private loans by providing guarantees of 85 percent to 95 percent. The program, which the president had tried to eliminate last year, was left with $18 million for next year, enough to cover one such loan.
The budget also would eliminate the "empowerment zones" program, which seeks to revitalize impoverished areas through grants as well as business tax breaks and credits. The president cut the program last year but Congress restored its funding.
The federal Appalachian Regional Commission, which helps attract new businesses and create jobs in some of Ohio's most economically strapped counties including Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana, would get the same level of funding, $66 million.
Last year, Bush had proposed slashing ARC funding in half to $33 million. Lawmakers opposed that idea and restored the commission's full funding.
Agricultural insurance
The Adjusted Gross Revenue Lite policy for crop and livestock insurance, known as AGR-Lite, is among various federal liability plans that would collectively see a $292 million funding increase from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Exactly how much would go to AGR-Lite was unclear Monday, said USDA spokeswoman Shirley Pugh. But the program is included in a $5 billion pot of money for the department's Risk Assessment Agency in fiscal year 2005, she said. The funding level for this year is expected to reach $4.7 billion, according to budget documents.
So far, Pennsylvania is the only state to receive federal AGR-Lite funding, which pays a portion of farm insurance premiums limited to $100,000 annually.
The program, which was designed by Pennsylvania's Agriculture Department in 2002, allows "whole farm" protection to relieve farmers of the burden of insuring each of their crops under separate insurance policies.
Twelve other states, mostly in New England and along the mid-Atlantic coast, are now seeking to set up their own insurance programs to qualify for the federal premium aid.