For example, Cumberland County's Training Resource Center, which helps retrain laid-off workers, expects a 25 percent cut in funding and is no longer accepting people for training. Everyone is being put on a waiting list. The cut comes at a time when homeless shelters are seeing record use. Services to homeless people will have to be reduced, according to the state agency. Private charities also have less money.
Fewer people can afford donations.
The United Way of Greater Portland saw a 10 percent decline in the number of people making donations between 1991 and 1995, said Meg Baxter, executive director. You have declining levels of support and expanded need. Ultimately the cuts in government spending, declining wages and rampant layoffs take money out of the economy. People cannot afford to buy the goods and services that make the economy grow. Already, state sales tax collections a direct measure of retail activity are behind expectations.