Navy secretary: Budget cuts could cripple Bremerton economy
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BREMERTON, Wash. -- The deadline is ticking on automatic defense spending cuts if D.C. lawmakers can't shore-up the nation's deficit by March. Wednesday, the Secretary of the Navy visited Bremerton to tell sailors what that could mean for them and for the local economy.
Navy secretary: Budget cuts could cripple Bremerton economy
In short -- the Navy could soon face billions of dollars in cuts, which would mean millions in cuts to bases around Puget Sound.
The Naval Shipyard would close, dozens of jets at NAS Whidbey would be grounded and thousands of sailors would move away.
"That's going to really hurt the economy around here," said Ray Mabus, Secretary of the Navy. "I imagine there could be a few businesses close."
All of it could potentially cripple local businesses.
"The people who run the convenience stores, the service stations, that run the dry cleaners, the restaurants, things like that - they're going to feel an impact too," Mabus said.
Debbie Crowl, who helps run a local bakery in Bremerton, says sailors and their families buy cookies and cakes here everyday.
"Every person in my family's got somebody that's been with the Navy," she said.
And without the Navy?
"We'll dry up -- I can't even imagine this town surviving," she said.
Congress is trying avoid automatic defense cuts from kicking-in on March 1. If they don't agree on a deal to handle the nation's deficit by then, Mabus says the Navy will lose more than $4 billion while bases around Puget Sound lose $90 million. Mabus says carrier groups could be split-up and moved to San Diego or back East.
The Blue Angels could be eliminated too.
And some of Crowl's favorite customers would leave too.
"I don't even know what would happen," she said. "I can't even imagine."
Navy secretary: Budget cuts could cripple Bremerton economy
In short -- the Navy could soon face billions of dollars in cuts, which would mean millions in cuts to bases around Puget Sound.
The Naval Shipyard would close, dozens of jets at NAS Whidbey would be grounded and thousands of sailors would move away.
"That's going to really hurt the economy around here," said Ray Mabus, Secretary of the Navy. "I imagine there could be a few businesses close."
All of it could potentially cripple local businesses.
"The people who run the convenience stores, the service stations, that run the dry cleaners, the restaurants, things like that - they're going to feel an impact too," Mabus said.
Debbie Crowl, who helps run a local bakery in Bremerton, says sailors and their families buy cookies and cakes here everyday.
"Every person in my family's got somebody that's been with the Navy," she said.
And without the Navy?
"We'll dry up -- I can't even imagine this town surviving," she said.
Congress is trying avoid automatic defense cuts from kicking-in on March 1. If they don't agree on a deal to handle the nation's deficit by then, Mabus says the Navy will lose more than $4 billion while bases around Puget Sound lose $90 million. Mabus says carrier groups could be split-up and moved to San Diego or back East.
The Blue Angels could be eliminated too.
And some of Crowl's favorite customers would leave too.
"I don't even know what would happen," she said. "I can't even imagine."
Go Navy?
"The Naval Shipyard would close, dozens of jets at NAS Whidbey would be grounded and thousands of sailors would move away".
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KOMO mis-reported and has to eat its words. Â Lets see if KOMO puts out a correction and apologizes. Â
One would think that "responsible" reporting would be of the utmost importance when dealing with the lives of so many. Report the truth, not your impression of what people say...the facts and not sensationalism. Real people are affected here, and you reporters need to remember that!
The statement in the article that seems to indicate that the Secretary of the Navy, the Honorable Mr. Maybus, said that the Naval Shipyard (at Puget Sound) will close has done a disservice to the community.
we just got an "allhands" e-mail about this story from someone who was accually in the meeting, and closing the shipyard was never brought up. an e-mail has been sent to komo to correct this story.
Dear Komo 4 News please get your facts straight my work is not shutting down if the budget does not get passed!!! we will only see cuts to non-essential work
PSNS is the only nuclear shipyard with a drydock big enough to accomodate the largest aircraft carriers, they might cut back work at the yard, but they won't be closing it.
 @justmyopinion I meant to add 'on the west coast'. I wish we could edit our posts!
Hm... The Blue Angels were here long before the massive increase in military spending in the last 10 years, yet they are the first on the list to be cut.
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More clueless Seattle Liberal, spouting off on something they know nothing about.
Cut the $3 billion in grants annually to Israel.
Stop the useless war in middle east.
Stop handouts to illegals in aid and tuition. They make the legal immigrants feel like dumb@ss.
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Well lets see here? cut the civilan contrators those that build on base housing the army has construction engineers the navy has seabees they can do all that construction for 3/4's less then any union contract could. money saved there. get rid of the civilan cooks on base in the chow halls and mess halls. have the Military do their own laundry. make them do their own stuff like back in WWII ans such.
The Navy is not a jobs program for local economies. Â
@unobtanium PSNS is the single largest empoyeer in kitsap county....
 @seahawk502Â
You people are missing the point - the Navy exists to secure the oceans for US interests, not provide jobs for Kitsap County. Â Where do you think the money comes from to support this? Â Aren't you the same people baying about high taxes (they are the lowest vs. GDP in 60 years) and gov't spending? Â Lots of bases got closed in the 90's: Glenview NAS, Ft. Ord, etc - the areas around them did not shrivel up and die.
@unobtanium Obviously You dont live in Kitsap county.
 @unobtanium The Navy has been a part of the Puget Sound area way before you were a twinkle in your daddy eye.
They have to cut the budget somewhere to pay for all the illegals and the handouts they are getting.
Sounds like he is trying to drum up support to keep the military spending at its artificially high level. How about instead of threatening local economies, talk about cutting weapons development and private contracting? The government can hire a person at the same wage as a private contractor for half the cost of what we are paying now. Seems if we did a lot of that we could save billions.
@jcman  likely not. federal employees have a retirement/ matching 401k dollars/ affordable health care/ sick leave and annual leave (vs PTO). a private contractor could not afford to pay the rich benefits - note that the retirement is for life.  i do not work for a contractor, but i bet the usual business decision is to offer minimum benefits.
 @jennieb It's true because federal employees don't have to show profits for the stockholders and high paid CEOs, and other high paid management employees that the major private contractors have. Federal employees don't pay into SS but have a similar retirement system where they pay into the retirement system along with the government making contributions. If you consider that a 401k it isn't. The whole contracting out of government work is a ruse by the big businesses that benefit from that contracting. So the big businesses give millions to our elected officials and have high paid lobbyists (another expense that government employees don't have to pay for). If spending all that money didn't get them benefits they wouldn't do it.
@jcman @jennieb Ok jennieb, you are not a federal employee then and I am and I do pay SS taxes just like the rest of the country. Check your facts before saying something.
Thank You Barrack, you own this.Thank You Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, thats the way to take care of our Military and Civilian work force. You broke your promises.Â
 @Tacobender50 Bannanas - sign of the times, no matter who runs it. Listen to Christie in NJ.
Why would we be making CUTS in military budgets for homeland defense, while supplying places like Egypt with BILLIONS of dollars worth of military equipment? Makes no sense.
I really hope this doesn't happen. The Bremerton shipyard is a huge part of the Kitsap economy. If it shut down, it would be devastating to Kitsap County...I can't imagine Kitsap County without PSNS as an employer and as a source of pride for everyone over there.
KOMO has the wrong information. SECNAV NEVER mentioned PSNS being closed.
More like a huge military budget artificially inflated the economy of many areas surrounding military basesÂ
I'm sure the military will do its best to scare us into not making any cuts, but the reality is that our military spending accounts for 50% of all military spending worldwide, so it's really time we got it under control. We need to make cuts to all Federal government programs, including the military, which accounts for over half of all of our federal spending.
 @Bellevue Scott You have no idea how this is going to impact the puget sound area.Not to mention Lewis/ Mccord.Â
 @Tacobender50  @Bellevue Scott It will, and we need to deal with it.
 @Komo Dragon  @Tacobender50  @Bellevue Scott Will have an impact from coast to coast. Everyone needs to deal with it.