COLUMBUS, Ohio -
Washington lawmakers agreed to
$85 billion in automatic spending cuts – called the sequester – believing they
would be able to make a deal on federal deficit reduction long before the cuts
would actually take place. That hasn't happened. By percentage of the federal
budget the cuts are small, but for thousands of Ohioans facing furloughs and
job losses, the cuts are huge.
Ohio's Head Start programs stand
to lose $22 million under the automatic federal funding cuts set to take effect
March 1. The cuts would eliminate 600 teaching jobs and result in 3,000 fewer
spots for children in the classroom.
Anita Davis, at the Child
Development Council of Franklin County, says the cuts would make the long
waiting lists for Head Start programs – even longer.
"So now we are going
to take children who were already waiting to get in and their chances of getting
in to the program are going to diminish significantly," Davis said. "I
just don't know how we would say to the parents ‘I'm so sorry we just can't
take your children anymore.'"
At Lifecare Alliance, the Meals
on Wheels program would lose $250,000 which translates to about 96,000
meals. According to a fact sheet released by the White House, other cuts
in Ohio would include:
- $344,000 for child vaccines
- $455,000 for crime prevention
programs
- $823,000 for nutrition
assistance for seniors
- $1,786,000 for job search
assistance programs
- $25,100,000 in funding for
primary and secondary education
Civilian employees at the
Defense Supply Center in Whitehall would be among 26,000 defense department
employees across the state who would likely see pay cuts to save $161 million
in federal payroll.
Matt Mayer, president of
Opportunity Ohio, a conservative think tank, says someone always loses out with
funding cuts and says lawmakers are unnecessarily scaring Ohioans.
"The
sky is not falling," Mayer said. "We will be fine. We just need to figure out
how do we take care of vulnerable populations and separate the government
spending that needs to be cut from the government spending that needs to be
maintained."
