States trim small programs in effort to balance budgets

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — South Dakota eliminated grants for mosquito spraying. Illinois stopped paying for funerals for the poor. Kansas reduced mowing along highways and turned off air conditioning in government buildings earlier than usual.

As states across the nation struggle to balance their budgets, lawmakers are seeking savings any way they can, even if it means nickel-and-dime cuts in basic services.

Since the recession began, many states have slashed spending by billions of dollars. Now legislators in all 50 states are looking for still more cuts as they confront a $121 billion shortfall for the new fiscal year that began July 1.

“I think it’s easy to understand when you think about your own personal finances,” said Ian Pulsipher, a policy specialist in Denver with the National Conference of State Legislatures. “If you could imagine your own income decreasing by a very large amount in one year, you can imagine the kinds of changes you would have to make.”

In Mississippi, the cash crunch has gotten so bad that the highway patrol limits the number of bullets troopers can use for target practice on their days off.

“If they need more, we’ll give them more,” said Department of Public Safety spokesman Jon Kalahar. But with such a weak economy, ammunition costs are a small area where officials can cut down.

In Idaho, elected officials eliminated all state funding for the state’s Women’s Commission, saying the group had done enough to promote equal rights since its founding in the 1960s.

Some lawmakers had been trying to dump the commission for years, and the state’s dire economic situation helped them justify wiping out the $30,000 appropriation.

In Kansas, maintenance crews reduced grass mowing along state highways, and many government buildings began turning off air conditioning at 4 p.m., an hour earlier than usual, in a move that should shave about $125,000 off the energy tab this year.

In Virginia, transportation officials cut $21,000 in annual spending on a ferry that has offered service across the James River for 140 years.

The state had funded the Hatton Ferry since 1941, mostly for tourists visiting Thomas Jefferson’s old stomping grounds.

County supervisors are providing $9,340 to keep the ferry running through September in hopes that a private or nonprofit group will take it over. The ferry is the last of its kind powered by a human being pushing against the river bottom with a long pole.

The pressure is pinching major cities, too. In Denver, officials are trying to slash $120 million from the budget — nearly double the amount originally forecast — because sales-tax revenues have dropped so steeply.

To save money, Denver has brought in crews to clean city offices during the day, allowing the building’s lights to be turned off earlier and requiring fewer security guards.

Through neighborhood meetings and an online survey, the city has also asked residents to weigh in on other ways to save.

Some of the possibilities include charging $10 a month for trash collection, watering parks less frequently, cutting back on street repairs and keeping nonviolent offenders out of jail. One woman suggested planting perennials instead of annuals in parks to save money.

South Dakota eliminated grants that helped local governments spray against mosquitoes, part of the fight against the West Nile virus.