Binghamton Mayor Jared Kraham is criticizing the Trump administration’s latest budget recommendations, saying the plan would cut millions in federal grant funding for the city.
The discretionary budget proposal, released last week, recommends eliminating several federal housing grant programs that fund local governments, including the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, which gives local and state governments grant funding to spend on a range of community projects.
“[The CDBG program] is critical funding that goes into the neighborhoods and blocks that need it most, and is a citizen-driven process,” Kraham said. “So it's not a Washington bureaucrat making the decision. It's a citizen advisory board in collaboration with the mayor's office and city departments to decide how this funding can be utilized.”
Trump’s federal discretionary budget request said the program is “poorly targeted” nationwide and the grant funding is used on “wasteful projects” across the country, including “a brewery, a plaza for concerts, and skateboard parks.”
“This type of a program is better funded and administered at the State and local level,” the request reads. “For example, the Town of Greenwich in Connecticut’s famously affluent “Gold Coast” does not need Federal grants, yet it received nearly $4 million in CDBG funding in the last five years and spent it on wasteful projects like theater arts programming for students and public swimming pool renovations.”
The city of Binghamton received over $2 million in CDBG grant funding this year. Kraham said the funding has gone to youth programming, services for seniors, and the demolition of blighted buildings.
“If this budget, as proposed by the Trump administration, is voted into law, those programs will cease to exist,” Kraham said. “The city cannot afford to come up with this $2.3 million to fund these efforts. The city, just frankly, can't afford it. So this funding would just go away.”
Kraham, a Republican, said he believes there should be reforms to change CDBG requirements and eliminate “red tape.” But he called the Trump administration’s reasoning “frustrating.”
“To just eliminate it, and blame it on areas that are wealthy and take away funding from places like Binghamton that struggle with poverty, and struggle with neighborhoods that are in transition that we're trying to revitalize, is just a lack of knowledge, I think, about what CDBG means,” Kraham said.
According to the city’s 2025 budget, over $500,000—the largest portion of the city’s CDBG funding—went to housing and housing rehabilitation programs, including homeownership resources and a “senior repair program.”
The city also allocated nearly $470,000 in CDBG funds for demolition projects and $425,000 for infrastructure improvements, including milling and paving on Hayes St. on the city’s south side, capital projects at local nonprofits, and the Discovery Center children’s museum.
Around $175,000 in CDBG funding went to youth programming, including after school services for teen students and backpack donation programs.
The Trump administration’s budget recommendations would also slash rental aid nationwide and eliminate the HOME Investment Partnerships program, which Kraham said would mean the loss of over $500,000 in grant funding for housing projects.
“The elimination of that takes away another tool, as cities like Binghamton work to develop affordable housing,” Kraham said. “We've had many discussions about how difficult it is to make these numbers work. Now, off the table, is all of this funding, more than half a million dollars annually, that supports the development of affordable housing.”
The Trump administration first suggested eliminating the HOME and CDBG programs back in 2017, but those recommendations did not successfully make it into the federal budget.