Automatic federal spending cuts known as “the sequester” went into effect March 1st. The cuts are intended to reduce the federal deficit with small programs footing the bill.
Southeast Missouri is no exception to these cuts. The list includes education, health, and environmental budget cuts among many others.
Dr. Bruce Domazlicky is the Director of the Center for Economic and Business Research at Southeast Missouri State University. He says the southeast area will experience greater losses in smallers programs, especially education programs like Head Start and student work-study jobs.
While effects are not expected to be noticed immediately, Domazlicky expects that we will eventually see significant impacts.
“We add it all up, a lot of little hits to a lot of programs,” Domazlicky said. “But in the end it will probably be a pretty big number in terms of the actual final impact on Southeast Missouri. ”
Domazlicky says it is unlikely that the State will compensate for the federal cuts.
“The State has a lot of different priorities, and trying to offset federal government budget cuts probably isn’t going to be one of them. So I think overall we’re just going to take the hit. That’s about all we really can do. There’s not a whole lot we can do in terms of trying to anticipate them,” Domazlicky said.
