DevelopOhio

Recently, budget analysts with the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) issued a study on the impact on states of the Sequestration Transparency Act of 2012, which is made up of “automatic federal budget cuts that apply largely across the board due to begin in January 2013,” according to The Hannah Report. These cuts, which total more than $1 trillion over 10 years, were designed to be triggered if the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction failed to identify $1.2 trillion in spending cuts as part of the Budget Control Act of 2011, the article said. The Office of Management and Budget released a report in September outlining the “potential funding effect of sequestration on defense and non-defense discretionary and mandatory spending and Medicare for FY13,” from which information was gathered that NCSL used to determine the effect on states. While Medicaid, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Block Grant (TANF), transportation programs, administrative assistance for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Child Care and Development Block Grant, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and most entitlement and mandatory programs are exempt from sequestration, cuts due to sequestration will come in the areas of education, environment, energy, human services, housing, community development, labor, job training, law enforcement and homeland security, the NCSL analysis said. For more details on the impact on states of reduced funding due to sequestration, read the NCSL analysis and the OMB report.