MAYOR ROCKY ANDERSON

Rocky Anderson says President Bush got it wrong when he named a new program "Strengthening America's Communities."

Anderson says the initiative will actually weaken Salt Lake City's poorest neighborhoods.

The mayor blasted the Bush administration's proposal to cut next year's Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) by $1 billion across the country and combine it with other programs, calling the cuts "draconian" and "shortsighted."

CDBG money must help improve housing, public facilities and infrastructure in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods or prevent or eliminate blight. Salt Lake City's budget funds things from affordable housing to homeless shelters to skateboard parks.

It is unclear how Bush's proposed cuts will affect Salt Lake City, since federal administrators haven't said how they will reallocate the money. But officials say it could slash the city's $4.6 million budget by at least 33 percent.

Anderson says the reorganization will pit Salt Lake City's needy against the needier in Chicago and Los Angeles.

"The Bush administration does not understand the importance of investing in communities such as ours," the mayor said Tuesday night when presenting his suggestions for how to spend this year's allocation. "The president's proposed budget, if adopted [by Congress], will derail our progress and eliminate services to thousands of our residents."

This year's $4.6 million budget represents a 5 percent cut from last year - one of the largest cuts in years. There were $11.3 million worth of requests from nonprofits and city agencies.

City Councilwoman Jill Remington Love will travel to Washington this weekend as part of the National League of Cities congressional conference to lobby Utah's federal representatives. She said CDBG funding is the top priority. She says it has paid for such things as an air conditioning unit for a mentally ill patient and a refrigerator for a family support center.

"They affect real people," she said.