Budget Cuts

A report released by the Pentagon this week warns of the consequences of continuing to fund the military at sequestration levels. The across-the-board spending caps have been relieved by a budget deal in Congress, but the Pentagon is saying that by 2021, the Department of Defense will have spent $1 trillion less than it had planned, making cuts in almost all areas including acquisition, research and personnel.

Thursday is the second day of meetings at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base for small businesses in the defense industry. The event is part of an effort on the part of the Air Force to work more with small contractors; base officials say it helps them stay efficient as the government cuts defense budgets.

Those cuts have been bad news for local industry, which provides the Air Force with everything from computer systems to research to airplane parts—but not all contractors are feeling the same pain.

Large contractors cash in

Governor John Kasich has signed the capital budget, a $2.4 billion funding bill for infrastructure and building projects at public facilities and schools around the state.

Central State University in Greene County has announced it’s getting a $1 million gift from an alum, entrepreneur and media figure Josh Smith. On the same day the gift was announced, at least 17 people were laid off from the school.

The university has been in negotiations with labor unions for a while about the need to make cuts, and Central State spokeswoman Gayle Barge says seventeen people got letters on Tuesday—secretaries, facilities workers and mail people, many of them members of the AFSCME union.  

President Obama’s budget proposals have been making waves this week. He and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel are pushing to downsize the Army and Air Force and finally end the war in Afghanistan.

But buried deeper in the President's defense budget, are line items for scientific research, says Michael Gessel with the Dayton Development Coalition.