Springfield's Air National Guard Base will lose 47 jobs due to government cost cutting. The Guard Base and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base continue to deal with harsh budget cuts.
Springfield's guard base is losing 47 intelligence and reconnaissance positions within the 178th Fighter Wing as a result of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal-year 2013 that President Obama signed on January 2.Wright-Patterson Air Force Base spokesman Daryl Mayer says the job losses at the Ohio National Guard are different than sequestration. He says that a detailed plan is needed in both cases to keep operations running as smooth as possible.
"We've taken a number of actions, most of them are referred to as the near term actions, such as reviewing contracts and renovation projects and things of that nature. Also reviewing temporary employees and term employees to assess whether or not those are mission critical positions. And then we're also preparing for furloughs which look to be coming probably next week and how duty sections will deal with that," Mayer said.
Springfield's Economic Director Tom Franzen says it's too early to determine the impact the loss of jobs at the guard base will have on the city. But Wright-Patt's Mayer says he knows what the biggest impact sequestration will have on the base.
"The biggest impact of that is probably going to be the furloughs. Where 13,000 civilian employees at Wright-Patt are going to take one unpaid day for a 22 week period through the remainder of the fiscal year and that's going to play out to about a 20 percent cut in each employee's pay and will also have an impact off the base obviously in terms of decreased spending power," Mayer said.
Job cuts at Springfield's Air National Guard Base are expected to start in October, while Wright-Patt waits for Congress to reach a budget deal to end sequestration.