Tagged: sequestration

 The federal budget cuts known as the sequester are hitting home across Metro Detroit.

That’s the message Congressman Sander Levin took on the road in his district Friday.

Levin met with seniors, defense industry employees, and hospital staff in Macomb County. All have been affected to some degree by the sequester.

At St. John’s Macomb hospital, a 2% cut to Medicare payments has taken a $4.5 million bite out of the budget. About 70% of the hospital’s patients are covered by Medicare.

Federal cuts to affect schools

"The state of Michigan doesn't plan to lay off any of its 48,000 workers because of automatic federal spending cuts. [But] federal education funding will drop $54 million and affect special education programs, after-school programs and aid for schools with more students in poverty," the Associated Press reports.

14 percent of lottery winners are on welfare or live with someone on welfare

Michigan has found 3,500 lottery winners, representing around 14 percent of all winners, who either got welfare or lived with welfare recipients. As the Associated Press reports, "Human Services Director Maura Corrigan says some lottery winners are no longer getting public assistance because of the law signed a year ago. But she says 'loopholes' still let lottery winners collect some Medicaid benefits."
 

Lansing Marathon ramps up security

"The two thousand runners expected to take part in this Sunday’s Lansing Marathon can expect to see tight security along the 26.2 mile course. The added security is in response to Monday’s deadly bombing at the finish of the Boston Marathon," Steve Carmody reports.

State officials say they don’t expect they’ll have to lay off employees due to the loss of $150 million dollars in federal funds this year and next. That’s how much the state is expected to lose because of the budget standoff in Washington.

The state budget office says it has a plan that averts public employee layoffs.

But Governor Rick Snyder says the state has no plans to replace the money lost because of sequestration – which amounts to about four-tenths of one percent of total state spending.   

'The sequester' has generated a nervous buzz throughout the nation as we wait to see if the federal budget cuts will be a big deal. 

For some agencies in Michigan, the cuts are already here.

Let's take a look at one of the state's most popular scenic tourist destinations - the Sleeping Bear Dunes. Last year, the Dunes had a record year with 1.53 million visitors.

Tom Ulrich is the Deputy Superintendent of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

Though he wasn't told to furlough any of his year round employees, Ulrich was required to cut a lot of the seasonal employees that are crucial to park maintenance over the summer.

How much will Michigan residents actually feel the effects of the sequester?

Well, we're still waiting to find out. 

The lack of clarity concerning the real amount of jobs being furloughed and cuts to departments and agencies is largely due to a continuing resolution that President Obama will sign this week.

The resolution will fund the government for the next six months in order to get the country through the next fiscal year. 

Todd Spangler covers the nation's Capitol for the Detroit Free Press and joined us from Washington  D.C.

Unionized state employees received notices earlier this month that layoffs may be coming as a result of funding cuts due to the federal sequester.

The notices were dated March 8, but were only made public this week.The state is required to give 30-day's notice before any layoffs. The earliest any could occur would be April 8.

Kurt Weiss, a spokesman for the Department of Technology, Management and Budget, said the state still isn't sure what will be cut.

"That's the hard part right now, we don't know exactly where the cuts are coming," Weiss said. "We're waiting for further guidance from the federal government. We expect the cut level will be somewhere around $150 million total, but whether that will result in layoffs or not, we just don't know yet."

With President Obama and Congress failing to come to a budget deal, automatic spending cuts have gone into effect. There have been dire warnings about the impact of those cuts though the effects won’t be felt immediately. But Michigan gets over half its budget from the federal government which means the state will have to face the impact of the cuts if impasse isn't resolved soon. We speak with Budget Director John Nixon.

Local governments and businesses are waiting to see how they will be affected by automatic federal budget cuts that take effect today.   

In Grand Rapids, the city’s plans for a new rapid bus service may end up being delayed by the sequester cuts.

Peter Varga is the CEO of The Rapid.   He says 80 percent of the funding for the nearly $40 million project is slated to come from the federal government.

Varga says if the federal funding is held up, the project will be delayed beyond its 2014 completion date. He says a delay will add to the cost of the project.