Tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent of the population are to blame for the simultaneous federal budget cuts and deficits, Fargo-Moorhead social service providers were told Thursday.

"This budget is not out of balance because of human services costs," Steve Francisco of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits told almost 100 people in Moorhead.

"More people are going to be knocking on your door," he told the nonprofit representatives. "These cuts are going to have real impacts."

In North Dakota, an estimated 1,300 households probably will no longer be eligible for food stamps, said Cathy Hogan, director of Cass County Social Services.

Also, for the first time in memory, no energy assistance to help low-income people with their summer cooling costs will be available in North Dakota, she said.

Under budget resolutions passed by Congress, Minnesota's share of $10 billion in Medicaid cuts will be $160 million over five years, Francisco said.

In one form or another, 580,000 Minnesotans receive some or all of their health care from federal programs, he said. The cuts are falling "at the very time we have a health care crisis."

The predictable result, Francisco added, will be an increase in the number of uninsured.

"For some people, that is literally life and death," he told a gathering, organized by the People Escaping Poverty Project, called "Waking the Sleeping Giant."

Nonprofit advocates are beginning to discuss how they can be more effective in communicating the effects of the budget cuts. Congress is putting together appropriations bills following the budgetary blueprint provided by the resolution passed last month.

Even with the budget cuts, the federal deficit will balloon by $168 billion over five years - a figure that likely will approach $200 billion when appropriations for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are added, Francisco said.

In the region that includes Cass County, the number of people receiving child care assistance will drop by 300, Hogan said. Students in four-year programs no longer will be eligible.

In Clay County, 1,500 families receive support from the food stamp program, said Rhonda Porter, the county's director of social services. It isn't clear yet how many won't be eligible because of cuts.

"It's the chinking away of the core infrastructure of social services," Hogan said. "The low-income, working poor suffer."

Readers can reach Forum reporter Patrick Springer at (701) 241-5522