The Bush administration has thrown states already juggling money and priorities yet-another ball--across-the-board reductions in the federal government's 38 largest grants-in-aid programs (Medicaid excluded).

Under the administration's 2003 budget proposal, every state, with the exception of Louisiana and Nevada, will lose grants-in-aid funding, according to a report issued by the Economic Policy Institute (http://www.epinet.org/).

The losses range from an 8.1 percent drop in New York to a 0.1 percent decline in Florida. In addition to New York, the states most affected by the reductions are: Maryland; Kentucky; Alaska; and Indiana. These reductions will have to be absorbed by state and local budgets, according to EPI.

There are more than 200 federally funded grants-in-aid programs ranging from Medicaid to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families to Interstate Highway Maintenance that provide revenue to states and localities.

In fact, federal payments for these grants-in-aid programs are 25 percent of total state revenues, according to the FPE/AFT report State Revenue & Taxation: Issues for Supporting Public Service in the 21st Century. (A PDF version of the report is available online.)

The FPE/AFT represents public employees in eight of the states that are most reliant on federal revenue. They are Kentucky; Maine; Montana; New York; North Dakota; Ohio; Pennsylvania; and Rhode Island.