Hurricane season begins June first but sequestration has already been hitting Florida with a steady storm of financial cuts.
I received the following email message - see below - from Progress Florida today. Sequestration has been on my mind for a while. When I first read in the
Tallahassee Democrat how sequestration could negatively impact programs like Meals on Wheels in Tallahassee, I wondered how residents in rural areas like Wakulla would fare.
To get some answers about the sequestration and how Wakulla senior citizens might fare, I called the man who runs our Senior Center in Wakulla: Maurice Langston.
Mr. Langston gave me an overview of how our local Senior Center and programs such as Meals on Wheels are funded here in Wakulla. He explained that the impact of cuts would be felt but he also outlined his measures to do some belt tightening and how he planned to step up friend and fund raising with some creative new programs - including a Mystery Theater Dinner and a Kayak Tour. Mr. Langston also assured me that he and his staff were working hard to avoid any cuts in services.
I've promised Mr. Langston that I would come in to the Center for a full tour this summer. To date, I've attended a number of community events at the Senior Center but I have never had an actual tour with an explanation of programs. From an exploration of the website, I can already say that this organization does with one 501c3 what close to ten organizations do in neighboring Tallahassee.
Want a chance to enjoy a great community program and help the Senior Center? Christmas in July is coming up. I have had the opportunity to support this event in the past and I highly recommend it as a program that brings community members together to support the Senior Center.
Annual "Christmas in July" Luncheon
Come Celebrate with Us
When: Wednesday - July 24, 2013
Time: 12 Noon
Admission: $50.00
Enjoy our delicious Christmas Lunch and wonderful Silent Auction.
(Silent Auction begins at 11:30 am)
Please contact Maurice Langston or Shelly Homan at 850.926.7145 for ticket information.
http://wakullaseniorcitizens.com/
Now, more about those hurricanes....
From Progress Florida:
Below, please find a quote from Progress Florida executive director
Mark Ferrulo on the impacts the sequester could have as hurricane season
approaches in Florida as well as an analysis of other potential threats
to public health and safety:
“Hurricane season is officially ten days away but with the sequester
there are already ominous storm clouds on the horizon in Florida,” said
Ferrulo. “After Katrina, Super Storm Sandy and now the Oklahoma tornado
tragedy, Congress should know better than to allow cuts to our National
Weather Service and National Guard. This political posturing puts lives
at risk in Florida.”
Key points
National Weather Service
Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center near Miami will be forced to take off four unpaid days by
Sept. 30. Staff at the National Weather Service is already depleted – 250 vacancies – due to a hiring freeze.
The National Weather Service office in Tallahassee normally
has 18 meteorologists but with budget cuts and vacancies they'll be
down to 14 meteorologists whose job it is to track weather in 48
counties throughout Alabama, Georgia, and Florida.
National Guard Impact
993 uniformed military technicians
and civilian employees will be placed on a one day per week unpaid
furlough day for up to 22 weeks. That equals a nearly a 20% pay cut per
person.
In addition to concerns about potential for added risk during
hurricane season there are a number of other areas of concern with
regard to impacts on public health and safety in Florida ranging from
housing to Head Start to senior programs and more. Below, please find
more information:
Additional sequester Impacts in Florida
The sequester has been devastating communities across the nation,
include our families here in Florida. Below are some of the reported
impacts of the sequester in Florida
Housing Impacts
The Sarasota and Manatee Housing Authority has
put a freeze on vouchers that administer Section 8 federal pass-through
money that allow poor residents to rent housing. In a typical budget
year, the federal government provides $2 million to operate. Thanks in
part to sequestration, this year's funding amounts to just $1.52
million.
Department of Defense Impact
Harris Corp. which sells communications equipment to the military, on
April 11 cut
its profit and sales outlook for the year in part because of order
delays tied to sequestration and budget uncertainty. The
Melbourne, Florida-based company plans to cut 400 jobs.
700 civilian employees at U.S. Southern Command in Doral will be forced to take one day off a week from April 25 through the end of September. At Homestead Air Force Base,
300 civilian employees would be furloughed. Sequester affects
600 workers at Naval Air Station Key West, where the 22-day furlough means a 22 percent reduction in pay.
IDEA Impact
About 100 paraprofessionals and
specialists within Lee County schools were notified their jobs would be
eliminated because of spending cuts at the federal level connected to
sequestration. The positions are funded through the federal Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act grant, or IDEA, and include 90
non-certified paraprofessionals or helping teachers and 15 certified
staff members including behavioral, staffing and learning resource
specialists.
NASA Impact
Budget cuts to NASA include
pushing back a flight to corral an asteroid and explore it in 2021 as
well as a crewed journey to Mars sometime during the 2030s — which some
critics say isn't soon enough. Sequestration already has slashed several
hundred million dollars from NASA's budget.
Justice Department Impact
The Southern District of Florida has
instituted a hard hiring freeze impacts the overwhelming caseload of
federal prosecutors. By not replacing employees who have left, the
workforce is reduced by 15 percent. That includes 15 to 18 prosecutor
positions that aren’t filled.
South Florida detention centers have started to release dozens of detained undocumented immigrants who are now fitted with an ankle monitor.
Head Start Impact
In Sarasota Country some
Children First programs are closed to new enrollments as waiting lists
get longer. Salaried staff have already taken a 3 percent reduction,
there is reduced contribution to retirement plans, and hourly employees
have gone from 40 to 36 hours a week.
Senior Services Impact
In Volusia County one congregate dining hall has been closed and the other eight are going dark one day of the week.
No more older Brevard county residents can sign up for Meals on Wheels, or dine at Seniors at Lunch sites, without paying. Two of the counties 13 Seniors at Lunch sites are closed.
In Seminole County, Meals on Wheels Etc. is absorbing its $63,000 cut by eliminating housekeeping services for 20 people.
In Orange County,
Seniors First lost more than $156,500 in federal funding. In addition
to reducing the number of neighborhood meal sites from 15 to 10, Seniors
First eliminated the jobs of two site supervisors and stopped adding
people to the 500-person waiting list for home-delivered Meals
on Wheels.
In Osceola County,
the Council on Aging will receive $59,000 less this year in federal
funding. The agency will limit transportation services to the elderly,
including trips to the doctor and grocery shopping.
In Lake County,
senior-services officials are absorbing the loss of $67,000 in funding
by withholding contributions to employee retirement plans for the rest
of the year; keeping current and future vacant staff positions unfilled;
and freezing elder services to those now receiving help. That means the
200 housebound elderly waiting to receive Meals on Wheels in Lake are
on indefinite hold.
In Manatee County $68,000 has been cut from the Meals on Wheels Plus service.
In
Palm Beach County,
about 240 daily breakfasts served to the elderly were cut about two
weeks ago after $147,000 was cut from the county program's food budget.
National Institutes of Health Impact
Research grants at the University of South Florida and Moffitt Cancer
Center which look long-term at diseases from lung cancer to heart
disease to stroke are in jeopardy
which is already slowing down their work. More than $37 million of the Tampa research hospital’s $62 million in cancer research grants comes from the NIH.
Sequestration: The Wrong Path for Our Nation
One day before Congress had to board their planes to go home for
recess, they decided to stop the flight delays caused by the sequester.
And while they sat cozy on their planes, the stories kept rolling in—
kids getting thrown out of pre-school,
vulnerable seniors going hungry, and
cancer patients having their chemotherapy treatments delayed.
Now, economists are also ringing the alarm bell—the conservative
cuts-cuts-cuts approach that’s taken Washington hostage is costing us
jobs.
The unemployment rate could be a full point lower if
not for our fiscal policies. That means more people are out of work
because the conservative ideology is dragging down our economy.
What’s become clear is that the sequester and its indiscriminate,
across-the-board cuts are not working for us. It’s leaving countless
Americans in the dust, devastating our communities, and holding back our
economic recovery. We need to stop the sequester and get back to
rebuilding our economy so that it works for all Americans.
Background – how we got here
The sequester is a direct result of Congressional Republicans taking
the nation’s economy hostage in 2011 over raising the debt ceiling.
In exchange for agreeing to pay America’s bills, Speaker Boehner
negotiated the deal that wrote the sequester into law, stating that
he’d gotten 98 percent of what he wanted.
Since then Republicans have been
trying in vain to blame the president for the sequester.
However – no amount of smearing can erase the fact that 174 Republicans
in the House and 28 Republicans in the Senate voted for the plan that
Speaker Boehner negotiated.
This analysis on the impacts of sequestration in Florida is a
collaborative effort between Progress Florida and the Center for
American Progress.
