Sequestration Budget Cuts: Which WI Counties Have the Most Federal Employees?
More than 6,200 federal employees who work in Milwaukee County could potentially be affected by sequester, which is slated to start Friday.
Unless Congress reaches a last-minute agreement on the sequester by Friday, the huge budget cuts slated to kick in have the potential to affect more than 6,200 federal employees working in Milwaukee County.
Barring any kind of deal, the Obama administration will have to impose $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts to military and domestic programs on Friday, according to The New York Times. Those cuts would be the start of $1 trillion in cuts over the next decade.
The numbers in the graph above show the number of federal employees in Wisconsin by county in 2012, according to the latest figures from Eye on Washington, a DC-based lobbying firm that tracks federal employment.
It compiles the data from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
While much has been written on how the current sequestration battle in Washington could affect the national economy, these numbers are meant to give readers a sense of the sequestration at the local level.
Of the 6,200 federal employees in Milwaukee County, more than 3,900 work for the Department of Veterans Affairs and about 800 are employed by the Department of Defense.
On Sunday, the Obama administration released a report that showed Wisconsin could see more than $27 million in federal cuts if the sequester takes effect. And a report released this week by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators said the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee could lose about $40,000 in federal work study grants.
No one knows for certain what the sequestration cuts will mean exactly. Even if the federal cuts are enacted, the full effects would not be felt immediately. The government is required to alert impacted agencies of what cuts are to be made and what workers are to be furloughed.
It should be noted, however, that even the suggestion of cuts and the notification process itself could be felt in some community economies.
Uncertainty for federal workers means they are likely to tighten their belts until they see what the cuts look like — and how long they last. It means those workers will likely spend less money at local shops and restaurants. In some communities there may be only a handful of federal workers and the impacts may be small.
But, as these figures show, in other counties federal employees number in the thousands and in those places the sequestration could become a more significant pain, particularly if it drags on for weeks or months.
Young Conservative
2:09 pm on Thursday, February 28, 2013
Thats a good start. Now multiple this by 10 to get our house in order.
WaitingForTheSpark
8:17 pm on Thursday, February 28, 2013
I have an extreme dislike for the United States government right now, not in a Timothy McVeigh kind of way but more in the vein of I’m ashamed that the American people voted for the morally corrupt, vile, incompetent race baiter Obama and left the Senate in radical Progressive hands. The fact that my fellow man and women did that last November disgusts me to no end and I just can’t support anything the government is putting out. I will legally fight with ever fiber of my being every Obama policy that comes out of his second term.
vocal local 1
2:28 am on Friday, March 1, 2013
Holding Congress's salaries is a joke right? The majority are or have become millionaires and won't be effected. Now if they also cut their office and aides funding there could be outcry. As for layoff's of federal employee's so be it. They will simply roll over onto entitlement programs further stressing social security and medicare. Personally, I like to see repeal of the Patriot Act and goodbye to TSA, the pesky, un-american, ineffective goons we are forced to deal with who want to expand to all transportation sites and who knows where else as they are officially EMERGENCY employees who can be activated. Probably the hidden agenda. Spark, I don't think you can blame Obama. Republic's governed by the people never last when greed and incompetence are the driving force. Do you really support Boner and Eric Cantor? They're super rich and couldn't care less about the workers of America which I assume you are if you live in OC. Your obviously failing to remember that when Geo. Bush Jr. took office post Clinton that we still had surplus reserve funding and not the trillions of dollars of debt we acquired in his eight years of office fighting the rich man's wars in the middle east. American's sent their kids to die when they couldn't find jobs in the middle east fighting for American Capitalist dirty deals. Remember Iraq? We destroyed that country? We've been a major player in the deaths of many helpless civilians, men, women and children. Only Iran stands strong and oppressed.
Jimbo Kobs
6:24 am on Friday, March 1, 2013
Adams county is prison country, lock more up and create more good paying jobs.
vocal local 1
8:18 am on Friday, March 1, 2013
Prison guard jobs in WI are underpaid in comparison to surrounding states. WI correctional institutions are understaffed, underpaid, unless they are calling in sick then picking up fill in jobs at higher pay and receive poor training was the last report I read. Lock more people up? Are you goofy? We need to repeal a whole bunch of felony laws, thereby opening up the prisons. The drunk driving laws are a failure but the ignorant public, MAD and others stupidly don't get it that longer sentences won't work, resulting in higher social costs. Now the fix according to our madison reps is rehab and therapy interventions that don't work either. The banksters and politicians break the law all the time but are too big to jail. The sentencing guidelines allow crooked judges to let the real felons off the hook and even if they go to jail most often they don't go into the general prison population they go to country club style federal prisons plus, they still receive their benefits and none of your elect want to change the policy. Wonder why? Remember Toman fourth district alderman? He never spent a night in jail for while drunk at the legion post pushing and killing a handicapped resident. To top it off his homeowner's insurance paid off the victims wife but first they had to manipulate a dismissal as the insurance wouldn't have paid with a conviction. How did his homeowner's insurance pay for his drunken behavior for an incident that didn't even take place in the home? Pray tell,
Vicki Bennett
7:31 am on Friday, March 1, 2013
I think we should withhold the pay and benefits of all Senators and Representatives until they take "positive" action. Further, we should demand that they cannot be compensated by outside parties such as the Koch brothers. These individuals need to see what it's like to go without income and benefits and try to survive like the rest of us. When legislators are soooooo... entrenched in dogma and rhetoric that they lose all humanity, they need to be taught a lesson.
Greg
2:37 pm on Friday, March 1, 2013
"positive" like taxing us less and spending less? Is it OK if they take money from George Kaiser? George Kaiser, chairman and majority shareholder of BOK Financial, parent company of Bank of Obama, I mean Oklahoma. Obama was taught a lesson, it was a lesson from Tiger Woods trainer. Now the Pres knows how to survive like the rest of us, talk about a lack of humanity.
Jay Sykes
3:36 pm on Friday, March 1, 2013
Does that mean kick everyone out of 'public housing' too?
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Jory Pradjinski
10:58 am on Saturday, March 2, 2013
Withhold the pay and benefits from the president on down to every last piece of scum that affects our budget and debt plans. When they get their acts together and play nice like little kids in a sandbox (who, by the way, have more sense) then they would only receive 1/2 of said pay and benefits for the remainder of the fiscal year. No back pay. The other half would be paid back to us the taxpayers by way of the general fund. This process would remain in the books to be preformed whenever the morons act up again, every single time, to hold something over them. Some might argue that the amount wouldn't make a big difference, but they would be wrong because it's the act of doing such that would shake up our "political reps" and give taxpayers a shot in the arm that things can happen for the good of this once great country! We are their bosses, yet they hold the power to govern themselves, how wrong can we be.
robert heule
2:35 pm on Monday, March 4, 2013
Cut the pay of only the Tea Party Republicans. They are the cause of the gridlock. The Speaker of the House is afraid them.