COLUMBUS, Ohio – Hundreds of thousands of Defense Department employees begin taking unpaid days off this week as part of mandatory budget cuts and that includes hundreds of workers at the Defense Supply Center Columbus in Whitehall.
The furloughs will affect approximately 2,100 employees at the DSCC facility in Whitehall: 1,000 will be furloughed on Mondays and the other 1,000 on Fridays before the end of September, said Michael Jones, of the Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime Public Affairs Office.
Mayor Kim Maggard says city officials and businesses have been prepared for the furloughs for five months and have already begun to feel the squeeze.
“We’ve already had restaurants complain that their numbers are already going down. People knew they were going to get furloughed for probably at least five months now so they have greatly altered their spending habits,” Maggard said.
The furloughs are one way the Defense Department is making mandatory budget cuts which were the result of the sequester when lawmakers failed to hammer out a budget compromise.
She and her counterparts in towns that are home to large military employers across the nation are dealing with the loss of tax revenue as a result of thousands of workers who are being furloughed for one day per week.
Whitehall will lose out on approximately $500,000 in tax revenue, but Maggard says the city will alter its capital spending plans and will not have to cut services.