Budget deal causes business jitters

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - It's politics at it's worse.  While congress and the president battle over the budget, thousands of people are already losing their jobs. Sam Greenwood, Chairman of The Greentree Group, a defense consulting firm in Beavercreek says the governments' looming spending cuts, called sequestration, are already impacting his company.

"You cannot plan, you can not determine what you need to do in terms of hiring new people," Greenwood said. "And more importantly and recently already, were laying people off."

Greenwood said nearly 30 percent of his workforce is gone.

Vic Bonneau said GE's new $60 million facility near the University of Dayton has also been impacted.
 
"As business people we operate on a budget from year to year. If we don't know what our budget is next year I don't know how many people to hire, I don't know whether I should expand. I really don't know where the opportunities are going to go," he said. "So it's really the uncertainty that is the biggest problem here."

Sequestration is the result of the Budget Control Act that prevented the country from going over a fiscal cliff. A super committee, made up of Republicans and Democrats, recommended that $2.5 trillion be cut. What they couldn't agree upon was what should be cut, so unless congress steps in before January 1, 2013, automatic cuts will be made across the board.
 
Cuts that Congressman Steve Austria says will impact the Dayton region. He said approximately 20-40 thousand jobs could be lost in Ohio, mainly at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Austria accuses the Obama Administration of playing a dangerous game of politics, asking employers not to send out warning notices of impending layoffs, as required by the Warren Act.

"The Warren Act requires business owners defense contractors in particular who have a hundred employees or more, 50 at one location, to send out a warning at least 60 days prior to any contract that they're aware of that could be canceled."

Locally, Lockheed Martin was contacted. Initially they said they would follow the Warren Act and send out warnings, but later changed their mind and sided with the president.  

"Our decision to delay sending sequestration-related WARN notices to our employees was based on new information that clarified the timeline for implementing sequestration budget cuts," said Lockheed-Martin's Bill Harrell. "If sequestration occurs, we will adhere to the law and provide affected employees the full notice period required by the WARN Act at the appropriate time."

Repeated attempts by 2 NEWS to contact the White House went unanswered.