COLORADO SPRINGS – There are more than 53,000 federal workers in Colorado and with a partial government shutdown, a lot of people could feel the impacts.
Tatiana Bailey, director of the UCCS Economic Forum, doesn’t know exactly how many positions will be affected in Colorado. However, she says the state could feel a bigger hit than others.
Bailey said, “Arguably, a highly educated area like ours that does have a lot of ties to the federal government could be impacted.”
Nine agencies are projected to be affected by the latest government shutdown.
“You have transportation, treasury, agriculture, state department, Housing and Urban Development, Department of Commerce, and Department of Justice.”
The Department of Defense isn’t on that list, but still, Bailey said sister agencies who work hand in hand with the DOD aren’t immune to the shutdown.
“NASA, for instance, is going to basically furlough 96 percent of its employees.”
When it comes to transportation Bailey said, “Amtrak services, those are going to continue, but a lot of those workers will be expected…to go to work without pay.”
National parks will also be impacted.
“Visitors centers and restrooms will be closed.”
If a shutdown lasts long enough large ticket items could be put on hold.
“Housing and Urban Development, that whole department does a lot of loan processing and for people who are in the middle of purchasing a home they might see delays.”
There is some good news in that Social Security payments will continue as well as postal services and NORAD’s Santa Tracker.
Bailey said the other big impact in this shutdown is consumer confidence. In past shutdowns, such as the one in 2013, employees who went without pay or weren’t working decreased their spending by 10 to 20 percent. The impact on the GDP was $2 billion.
