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U.S. towns with federal workers brace for impact as the shutdown continues
National
U.S. towns with federal workers brace for impact as the shutdown continues
By Heather May, Annie Gowen and Joel Achenbach
January 6 at 6:40 PM
OGDEN, Utah — The snowy streets of Ogden are quiet these days. Parking lots are half-empty. Restaurant sales have dropped. Without federal workers to serve, Bickering Sisters cafe has cut the hours of its lunch service.
More than 4,000 federal employees who work for the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Forest Service have been furloughed from their jobs in this outdoorsy haven north of Salt Lake City as part of the partial government shutdown. The closing of federal offices has reverberated across the city of 87,000, where roughly a third of annual revenue comes from the sales tax.
Far away from the behemoth federal office complexes in Washington, small towns and cities with workforces dependent on government jobs are beginning to feel the pinch of one of the longest shutdowns in history, now at more than two weeks old.
Many of the affected federal workers — including 10,000 people in Utah, 6,200 in West Virginia and 5,500 in Alabama — have salaries far below the average $85,000 for government employees. But those paychecks drive local economies, and workers are starting to make tough choices about how to spend them — eating out less, limiting travel and shopping at food pantries instead of grocery stores — creating a ripple effect through the neighborhoods and towns where they live.
With President Trump predicting the shutdown could last months or even years, these towns are preparing for a long-term economic blow.
....
Annie Gowen is a correspondent for The Washington Post's National desk. She was previously The Post’s India bureau chief and has reported for The Post throughout South Asia and the Middle East since 2013. Before going to India, she was a member of The Post's social issues team covering wealth and inequality. Follow https://twitter.com/anniegowen
Joel Achenbach covers science and politics for the National desk. He has been a staff writer for The Post since 1990.
U.S. towns with federal workers brace for impact as the shutdown continues
By Heather May, Annie Gowen and Joel Achenbach
January 6 at 6:40 PM
OGDEN, Utah — The snowy streets of Ogden are quiet these days. Parking lots are half-empty. Restaurant sales have dropped. Without federal workers to serve, Bickering Sisters cafe has cut the hours of its lunch service.
More than 4,000 federal employees who work for the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Forest Service have been furloughed from their jobs in this outdoorsy haven north of Salt Lake City as part of the partial government shutdown. The closing of federal offices has reverberated across the city of 87,000, where roughly a third of annual revenue comes from the sales tax.
Far away from the behemoth federal office complexes in Washington, small towns and cities with workforces dependent on government jobs are beginning to feel the pinch of one of the longest shutdowns in history, now at more than two weeks old.
Many of the affected federal workers — including 10,000 people in Utah, 6,200 in West Virginia and 5,500 in Alabama — have salaries far below the average $85,000 for government employees. But those paychecks drive local economies, and workers are starting to make tough choices about how to spend them — eating out less, limiting travel and shopping at food pantries instead of grocery stores — creating a ripple effect through the neighborhoods and towns where they live.
With President Trump predicting the shutdown could last months or even years, these towns are preparing for a long-term economic blow.
....
Annie Gowen is a correspondent for The Washington Post's National desk. She was previously The Post’s India bureau chief and has reported for The Post throughout South Asia and the Middle East since 2013. Before going to India, she was a member of The Post's social issues team covering wealth and inequality. Follow https://twitter.com/anniegowen
Joel Achenbach covers science and politics for the National desk. He has been a staff writer for The Post since 1990.
