Sequester cuts will hurt, Arkansas officials say

Rep. Tim Griffin, a Little Rock Republican, said Obama was “doing his darndest to scare the American people simply for political gain.”  Here he is shown with House Speaker John Boehner (right) in January.
Rep. Tim Griffin, a Little Rock Republican, said Obama was “doing his darndest to scare the American people simply for political gain.” Here he is shown with House Speaker John Boehner (right) in January.

— Less than a week before automatic federal spending cuts are scheduled to take place, the White House released a snapshot showing how the reductions will be felt in Arkansas.

In Arkansas, military spending would be reduced by more than $23 million; more than $2 million would be cut for clean water efforts and other environmental programs; more than $11 million would be cut from education programs.

The White House release was part of a state-by-state analysis of across-the-board cuts to a full range of federal programs that are scheduled to go into effect Friday.

“We cannot simply cut our way to prosperity, and if Republicans continue to insist on an unreasonable, cuts-only approach, Arkansas risks paying the price,” said the White House release.

Arkansas’ Republican lawmakers said President Barack Obama was simply trying to scare the American public in order to avoid making cuts necessary to move the federal budget closer to balance.

“The president is engaged in typical scare-mongering that liberals and bureaucrats do when faced with budget cuts,” said U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton of Dardanelle.


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Rep. Tim Griffin, a Little Rock Republican, said Obama was “doing his darndest to scare the American people simply for political gain.”

The automatic cuts -known in budget parlance as sequestration - were agreed to in August 2011 when Congress passed, and Obama signed, the Budget Control Act. The act stipulated that if a group of congressional leaders, called the supercommittee, couldn’t agree to come up with a deficit reduction plan, then automatic cuts, split evenly between defense and nondefense programs, would kick in.

The committee failed to reach an agreement and, after Obama and Congress deadlocked shortly before their first self-imposed deadline in January, lawmakers voted for a three-month extension. If no deal in Congress is reached, sequestration is set to begin on Friday - the first day of March.

The cuts were designed to hit both the military and social programs. The goal was to make the cuts noxious to as many on Capitol Hill as possible, giving Democrats and Republicans an incentive to avoid the spending reductions and negotiate a deal.

White House officials released state-by-state reports outlining the effect it said the $85 billion in cuts would have on the nation during the rest of the fiscal year, which ends Sep. 30. The budget data came from the White House’s budget office and from federal agencies, according to the Associated Press.

When similar cuts were threatened last fall, a spokesman for Gov. Mike Beebe warned that Arkansas wouldn’t be able to replace the lost federal dollars with state revenue.

Sequestration will lead to furloughs - a mandatory cut in hours and pay - for about 4,000 U.S. Department of Defense civilian employees in the state. Those civilians are employed at the Pine Bluff Arsenal, U.S. Corps of Engineers, Fort Chaffee, Camp Robinson, Camp Pike, the Arkansas National Guard, the National Guard Professional Education Center and Army Reserve units in the state.

The furlough policy is projected to reduce employees’ gross pay by about $19.2 million.

There are several types of Defense Department civilian employees, said Maj. Chris Heathscott, with about 1,000 employed by the Arkansas National Guard. Many of those are dual-status jobs - such as the administrative officers and training noncommissioned officers that run the armories and prepare training plans for drill weekends - which are Defense Department civilian jobs that require active military status. All of the Army Reserve armories in the state have those positions as well. The furlough policy says no full-time military jobs are to be affected, but it is not clear if those dual-status jobs will be exempt.

In addition to the civilian furloughs, the base operation funding for Army facilities such as Camp Robinson, Pine Bluff Arsenal, Fort Chaffee, Camp Pike and all National Guard and Reserve armories will be cut by about $1.6 million. Details of where those cuts are not yet known.

“Absolutely it will have negative affects on readiness,” Heathscott said.

In addition to the Army cuts in operating funds across the state, Little Rock Air Force Base will have to cut $2 million out of its base operations budget under sequestration.

Lt. Mallory Glass, spokesman for the base, said the cuts will be made by deferring repairs to two conversion hangars used for electronic and mechanical work on C-130 cargo planes and a training facility.

The furlough policy also will affect the more than 600 Defense Department civilian employees at the base, but will not affect the contractor force, which makes up the bulk of the civilian work force there.

Dan Rahn, the chancellor of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, said the school stands to lose between $8 million and $10 million because of sequestration, largely from reductions in National Institutes of Health research grants and reductions in Medicare payments to doctors and hospitals.

In addition to the threat of sequestration, Rahn said the ongoing debate in the Arkansas General Assembly on the possible expansion of Medicaid, the health-care program for children and the poor, made it difficult to plan a budget.

A final decision has not been made, but he said it is possible the 10,000 faculty members and staff members will not receive pay raises this year, and furloughs or layoffs have not been ruled out.

The White House document outlines other cuts that will hit Arkansas. According to the document, 1,140 fewer children in the state will receive medical vaccinations, the state will lose $660,000 in grants to treat substance abuse and 200 fewer victims of domestic violence will be able to be served through the STOP Violence Against Women Program.

In addition, the report detailed cuts to be made nationally, such as reductions in food inspections and a furloughs of air traffic control workers at the Federal Aviation Administration.

Cotton called the report “far-fetched and designed to paint the scariest picture possible,” and said that other cuts could be made at the Department of Transportation and the Food and Drug Administration that would keep food inspectors and air traffic control personnel on the job.

Cuts in education will jeopardize gains the state has made in recent years said Donna Morey, president of the Arkansas Education Association, the state teachers’ union.

The state stands to lose about $5.9 million for primary and secondary schools and see about $5.6 million in cuts in programs for students with disabilities. In total, the education cuts would put 150 teacher and teacher assistant jobs at risk, the administration said.

If you cut programs that help children succeed, there will be long term effects,” Morey said.

“This will really hurt Arkansas,” she said.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/26/2013

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