Letter to the Editor: How Does Sequestration Impact Burnsville?

There is a lot of talk about “sequestration,” which went into effect on March 1, and how it will impact our every day lives.  Sequestration is the term for automatically cutting—in this case $85 billion—from the federal budget.  Some say it will be disastrous, others say we won’t notice a bit.  As is usually the case, the truth is somewhere in the middle. 

In Burnsville, we expect a lesser impact on the day-to-day services we provide – largely because we’ve already planned for some level of reduction in our budget – but also because we aren’t as reliant on federal and state aid as some other cities.  For example, Burnsville does NOT have any police officers or firefighters funded with federal dollars, so we will NOT be laying off any public safety personnel because of the sequester.

The State of Minnesota is also much less dependent on federal resources than other states (the State relies on federal funds for 1.8 percent of its budget, which is significantly lower than the national average of 5.3 percent). This helps blunt the impact when it comes to these automatic cuts. The biggest impact locally will be felt by our counties and school districts, which are more dependent on federal dollars.

The sequester WILL have some impact on the City’s budget. One direct impact is a two-percent reduction in Medicare reimbursements.  This amounts to approximately $25,000 cut from the revenues the City collects through its ambulance service (provided by our firefighter/paramedics). 

Another hit to the City’s budget will be noticed in our Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), which fund programs like senior services, after-school programming and rehabilitation loans for Burnsville residents.  With the City’s conservative budgeting practices, we already planned on a ten percent cut to CDBG resources in 2013— however, the sequester cuts five percent more, or an additional $10,000. 

Finally, several years ago, the City took advantage of low-interest rates offered by the federal government and issued “Build America Bonds” or “BABs.”  The federal government is reducing the promised reimbursement by 2 percent—or $78,000 over the life of those bonds. 

All of these cuts add up to real money—but because of the long-term financial planning done at the City, the action will not immediately impact the high-quality City services you rely on every day.