SAN DIEGO – Council President Todd Gloria today issued the following statement about the devastating impacts sequestration would have on the City of San Diego.
“Sequestration would cause San Diego to suffer. If federal spending is cut, the San Diego region would be greatly impacted. For that reason, the City included opposition to sequestration as a priority in our 2013 legislative package and has conveyed that to our Congressional delegation.
“Starting last year, my City Council colleagues and I have worked to fight sequestration and to advocate for more sensible ways to address federal fiscal challenges. I traveled to Washington, D.C. in September to convey the importance of finding alternatives to sequestration. In October, I testified before the State Assembly Select Committee on San Diego Trade, Tourism and Job Creation about the economic impact of sequestration on our region. Also last fall, the City Council passed a resolution raising awareness about the negative impact of sequestration’s automatic reductions in the Department of Defense’s budget.
“One out of every four local jobs is connected to defense spending alone, so if a number of jobs are cut due to budget constraints, our unemployed neighbors will likely spend far less money and will therefore impact the taxes on which the City depends to provide core services. If the City has less money, we’ll obviously need to revisit our budget priorities.
“These cuts are not empty positions. This week, I received an email from NASSCO letting me know that 1,040 of its employees in San Diego, Norfolk, and Mayport received letters that they may be indefinitely laid off on April 29. That single company alone could eliminate up to an additional 845 subcontractor positions. This equates to approximately 40% of its production workforce and almost its entire subcontractor base.
“Of course, cuts to the defense industry are not the only ways San Diego would be impacted. Sequestration would decrease the San Diego Housing Commission’s ability to create and improve housing opportunities for our neediest neighbors, slash Community Development Block Grant funding that benefits local organizations, rip apart critical services for children, seniors, people with mental illness, and health care, and gravely threaten local investment in streets, sidewalks, and public facilities.
“Our region and our country deserve better than this. Congress must act in the best interests of the people it represents, and that means not cutting our way to prosperity.”
