Efforts to avert deep across-the-board cuts to defense and domestic discretionary spending have failed, and Long Beach could see some indirect effects.
About $85 billion in automatic spending cuts, collectively known as the sequester, kicked in on Friday after Congress failed to reach an agreement to cut at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction by March 1.
Economists have suggested that the combined effect may have negative consequences for the economy.
“The governor’s budget is predicated on the basis that our economy is beginning to grow,” Cal State Long Beach President F. King Alexander said in a statement on Friday. “Sequestration could shatter that economic scenario and push California back toward recession-era budget cuts. If this were to happen, Governor Brown’s efforts to provide moderate and gradual re-investments in our universities could fail to become a reality.”
The Department of Education has been cut by $2.6 billion, and the Cal State University could experience reductions in excess of $22 million for the 2013 fiscal year, according to Terri Carbaugh, associate vice president of legislative and external relations at CSULB.
“[It’s] being quantified as one of the largest cuts to education programs ever,” Carbaugh said.
Because of the $22 million reduction, student outreach programs, such as TRIO and GearUP, may experience a $2.1 million cut, affecting roughly 3,300 students in the system, Carbaugh said.
Cuts to the Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant (SEOG), which helps students below a certain income mark with tuition and work-study programs, are possible. About $1.5 million could be cut from SEOG, which may eliminate awards for 1,400 students in California.
“As a percentage, that may seem small, but if you’re one of those 1,400 students, it has a significant effect on your ability to get your degree and succeed in life,” Carbaugh said. “It’s not a very responsible approach to managing a budget cut, and beyond that, any cut to education at this moment in time is extraordinarily counter productive.”
Carbaugh said that it’s important for students to know that even with the major federal cuts discussed in the news, the Pell Grant will be protected.
Funding for programs that provide research to many the CSULB faculty members are also in jeopardy. This research is used to train nurses, prepare future cyber security experts and focus on key social policies, such as how to manage aging, cancer, climate change and energy, Carbaugh said.
The Port of Long Beach, the second busiest seaport in the country which supplies more than 300,000 jobs in the city, could also be affected, Port of Long Beach communications coordinator Art Wong said.
“If impacts were that trade was disrupted or slowed, it could affect some or many of those jobs,” he said. “We’re just hoping that the impacts will be minimal, but we don’t know.”
Cuts may also affect travel in the Long Beach Airport; however, the cuts are directed towards the Transportation Security Administration, which handles checkpoints, Long Beach Airport Director Mario Rodriguez said. Processing may be slower, Rodriguez said.
“It’s not going to be catastrophic,” Rodriguez said. “You’ll be able to get to your final destination, but it may take a little more time.”
Assistant News Editor Rabiya Hussain contributed to this report.
