Four Liberty County mayors, the chairman of the Liberty County Board of Commissioners and the Liberty County sheriff signed a joint resolution Tuesday against possible sequestration that could take effect Jan. 2, 2013, if Congress and the president don’t agree to compromised budget cuts.
Commission Chairman John McIver opened the public meeting held in the county commissioners’ chambers in the courthouse annex. He thanked mayors Jim Thomas, Hinesville; Clemontine Washington, Midway; Sandra Martin, Flemington; and William Austin, Riceboro; and Liberty County Sheriff Steve Sikes for attending and supporting the joint resolution.
After explaining that sequestration essentially means “to seize,” Thomas said the threat of sequestration hovering over the nation is the result of the congressional super-committee of three Democrats and three Republicans failing to reach an agreement to reduce the budget deficit.
“Basically, what (sequestration) means is there will be additional $500 billion in cuts over the next 10 years to the federal budget,” he said, explaining most of those cuts will fall on the Department of Defense. “We would lose 7,000 jobs in this area. What we’re doing today is signing a resolution to send to the Georgia delegation to give to Congress.”
Thomas talked about the second-and third-order affects of sequestration on military communities, explaining many businesses will be affected by the lost jobs. Some businesses probably would close, he
said.
Following his remarks, each county leader signed the copy of the joint resolution in front of him or her and then passed it to their left or right until all had signed. Each leader then signed an oversized copy of the resolution on a poster board.
Leah Poole, chief executive officer for the Liberty County Chamber of Commerce, said the mayors of Allenhurst, Walthourville and Gum Branch and county clerk of court and tax commissioner were not able to attend the signing ceremony but gave no indication they would not sign it.
“I’d like to thank all the elected officials here today,” Thomas said after the signing. “We’re supposed to represent the citizens and make sure we don’t have the negative impact sequestration would cause to our community.”
In addition to the resolution signed by the county’s leaders, smaller petitions called opposition to sequestration pledge forms were available for local residents to sign.