Shrinking block grants

As Congress debates the value of block grants for everything from Medicaid to school lunches, it has a successful model on which to draw. But for receivers of the grants, both the advantages of locally run programs and the danger of anonymous programs can be found in the budget’s Community Development Block Grants.

The nation spends approximately $4 billion a year through CDBGs, sending money to cities for a wide range of projects — from housing rehabilitation to sewerage repair to purchasing fire trucks to encouraging economic development. It is tax money directed at local quality-of-life issues, and by all accounts it is money spent with a minimum of overhead and waste. But because communities decide where the CDBGs will go, the money sent from Washington does not have a well-defined, easily rallied constituency.

That means proposed reductions in both houses arrive as a percentage cut — 20 percent was proposed in the House, 50 percent in the Senate, conferees seemed to have agreed on 28 percent — rather than the elimination of specific programs. That is the vulnerability of block grants, which, in Maine, could sharply reduce the $17 million it received this year.

CDBGs, administered here through the Department of Economic and Community Development, have been used throughout the state to repair septic systems, bring houses up to code and extend water lines. They help the elderly or infirm, who may own a home but have no money to keep it in repair. By preventing these homes from going to ruin, the program helps entire neighborhoods stay alive.

Since the program’s beginning in 1982, Maine has received $170 million spread among 225 communities. Recently, Clinton, Guildford and Lubec received a total of $1.2 million to allow businesses to begin or expand. Bangor has received $6.7 million in funds and program income since 1990, which has funded housing repair, leveraged private dollars and helped the city meet requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Twenty-eight percent of the money for Bangor’s current block-grant budget has come from loan repayments.

The block grants, based on a formula that considers population, income and percentage of housing built before 1940, among other factors, has kept many Maine communities from fading away. A 28-percent cut may not be felt for a year or two, but homes and roads that aren’t repaired, downtowns left alone and public development abandoned will soon catch up with a community, leaving it far worse off.