Questions linger over sequester impact
A slew of automatic federal budget cuts, known as the sequester, go into effect today after Congress failed in two votes Thursday to agree on its own deficit reduction plan. But how soon any impact might be felt in Maine remains uncertain.
Maine Today Media reported that uncertainty over the cuts taking effect today come as Congress might still replace them with something else before these cuts are felt.
If unchanged through September, the automatic cuts mean, in part: cutting roughly 570 civilian employees of the Maine National Guard, starting April 25; adding up to 22 furlough days for 7,000 Maine-based civilian employees of the U.S. Defense Department, starting in mid- or late April; and $7.3 million in cuts to Maine public schools, starting July 1.
The cuts would also mean reductions in funding for Border Patrol, air traffic controllers and park rangers, though specific estimates of impacts in those areas remain unclear and any furlough days for those federal workers are still at least a month away due to notification requirements, according to The Associated Press.
The White House issued a warning earlier this week about how the sequester would affect Maine this year.
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