SAN ANTONIO -- Some community leaders are worried about the impact of federal cuts to our military town.
The head of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce says sequestration will be terrible for our military town.
"The sequestration scheme was created to be such a terrible thing that our elected officials would realize we don't want this to happen," said Richard Perez.
Perez is leading a group to Washington D.C. to lobby congressional leaders to work out a deal before March 1st to avoid mandatory spending cuts.
According to military spokesman, Brent Boller, in April, cuts would affect 20,000 civilian jobs within Joint Base San Antonio Lackland.
"We have them in virtually every mission within the joint base and that's from cyber space to basic training,” said Boller.
He also stated mandatory furloughs would mean civilian workers must lose a day of pay for several months and strip away about 20% of their salary.
This could cause lots of financial damage to families on a tight budget trying to pay a mortgage and afford the spiking price of gasoline.
Perez says it’s a real economic blow because people who earn less won’t dine out or spend on entertainment.
He also thinks these federal cuts are bad for our global defense.
According to Perez, workers might lose 22 days during the furloughs, but national security remains a 24 hours a day, seven days a week operation.
"Folks contracted to do the work can't do it, so somebody has to do the work so that means uniformed personnel,” said Perez.
Next week, his chamber delegation heads to the nation’s capital along with Mayor Julian Castro.
