Budget woes continue at EICAP

The Eastern Idaho Community Action Partnership is marking its 45th anniversary under difficult circumstances.

At a press conference Monday afternoon, Executive Director Russ Spain said funding is a major issue. He said the agency had to slash 5.7 percent of its budget for the current fiscal year because of federal spending cuts.

The cutbacks have forced management to make swift, important budget decisions as they go along, with less time to prepare.

Gene Nichol is the director of the Center on Poverty Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina. He visited EICAP to talk to employees about moving forward, despite the challenges, by spreading awareness.

“We’ve allowed ourselves to become both the richest and most unequal nation in the world,” Nichol said. “We’ve allowed that to happen in a way that sort of puts the lie to our foundational promises, and we are obliged as a people to take it back.”

Spain said EICAP might soon begin laying off employees.