Sequestration to Have Serious Local Impact

As a Baltimore City leader, I take pride in collaborating with our state and federal officials to improve the quality of life for our citizens.

While most of Maryland’s federally elected officials understand the importance of constructive collaboration, there are others who believe the current budget impasse on Capitol Hill is just a bump in the road.

For Baltimore, like many cities around the country, the series of automatic, across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration pose a real challenge to our fragile recovery from the Great Recession.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake recently discussed how these arbitrary cuts could impact Baltimore’s public safety efforts.

“First and foremost, the sequestration will impose troubling reductions in funding for public safety. For the last three years, overall violent crime in Baltimore has trended downwardly because of partnerships with our federal and other law enforcement allies. Any reduction in funding could have a significant negative impact on our efforts to reduce crime in Baltimore,” Mayor Rawlings-Blake wrote in her most recent weekly newsletter.

And the cuts go deeper than just public safety.

The sequestration will cut $85 billion from a number of vital programs in the coming months remaining in our current fiscal year. In addition to hits to public safety, Baltimore could experience reduced funding to programs related to education, housing, seniors, health and community development.

Here are a few troubling examples:

Employment grants – including adult basic education, technology education, and employment services – could be cut by $1.32 million, resulting in 5,057 fewer residents receiving needed services.

Head Start would lose $1.5 million, resulting in the elimination of services for 211 low-income children and families.

Seniors would lose 65,000 meals over a six-month period due to reductions in aging services. And 830 households would be at risk of losing their housing vouchers.

If you too find these cuts unconscionable, please join me in contacting your member of Congress to urge an end to sequestration.

The numbers are high, but the real-life stakes are even higher. These cuts will impact some of the lowest-income families and citizens who are already having a hard time in today’s post-recession economy. Please take the time to learn about the impacts of the sequestration and feel free to contact my office with any questions or concerns.