The Toll on Tennessee

Jennifer Peebles relays a report maintaining that the Iraq War has already cost Tennesseans $5.8 billion and cost Nashvillians $603 million. But what stood out was the future cost to community-oriented services of the proposed Bush Federal Budget:

Tennessee stands to see cuts of $15 million in Community Development Block Grants, $6 million in Head Start funding, $28.5 million in low-energy income assistance money and $13.6 million in special education money.

That news bodes ill not just for urban neighborhoods, but for the suburbs and ex-urbs, which increasingly rely on block grants and assistance for the poor in an era of decreasing revenue-driven services and increasing numbers of poor suburbanites. The Iraq War is now hazardous to our local communities, but not in a way that can be captured by a color-coded terror alert.