How will federal funding cuts affect small communities like Ocracoke?

Editorial

In the first two months of 2025, everyone can agree that we are navigating our lives, our businesses and mental health through uncharted and possibly treacherous waters. Beyond that, there is plenty on which to disagree, and there is no end to reading commentary and opinions on news sites and social media.

Our editorials rarely focus on the goings on in Washington, D.C. There are plenty of news sources that do. But Ocracoke residents need to be wary and that decisions made at the federal level are affecting the island.

Writing an editorial for a print newspaper on this topic is now challenging because decisions coming out of Washington are changing day-to-day and sometimes hour-to-hour. This is not just Republican/Democrat disputes. We are watching internecine warfare within the executive branch.

As we write this, Elon Musk, who may or not be a federal employee as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, has threatened to fire anyone who doesn’t respond to his demand that every federal employee write a weekly report.

But some agency directors have told their employees to ignore that demand and that they will not be fired.

By the time you read this, it might be resolved, but this does nothing to reassure us that we have competent leadership.

Cutting the federal workforce is one issue; providing grants and funding is another. Federal funding provides vital resources to a wide range of entities: nonprofits such as healthcare providers, educational institutions and the arts, along with state government agencies, research institutions and small businesses.

Hyde County Manager Kris Noble said at the January Ocracoke Civic & Business Association meeting that Hyde County’s grants are primarily state funded and come to Hyde already having a federal match, minimizing the impact of federal cuts.

She hasn’t heard that the grants with a federal match are affected, and she thinks the state has already gotten that money.

The Ocracoke Health Center is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), one of approximately 1,400 in the United States that serve about 1 in 10 Americans, or 32.5 million individuals annually.

They are a critical part of the social safety net. On average, FQHCs receive 12% of their revenue from federal grants, according to the National Association of Community Health Centers.

Funding delays pushed several community health centers nationwide to close or cut back on staff, at least temporarily, according to a Feb. 6 news story in Roll Call, which tracks congressional news from Capitol Hill.

We have no confirmation whether Ocracoke has or has not been affected by these cutbacks.

According to some in Washington, federal workers are corrupt, lazy and/or incompetent.

We could not disagree more. These people are our friends, neighbors and family, dedicated to serving their country and want to make a difference.

Like everyone else, they should be treated with respect and should not have to live terrified of receiving an email with “you’re fired” in the subject line.

Can worker performance be improved? Of course, it can — for both companies and governments.

On page 19, Ocracoke’s county commissioner Randal Mathews recounts how the county has worked on improving the dire financial condition of Hyde County, and citing the hard work by county employees.

“And there was a lot of pressure from the commissioners to fix this and be accountable.”

That approach of working with employees to improve government service is superior to massive firings by anonymous people who have no clue who they are firing and why.

Terminating provisional employees and reducing the number of full-time staff and seasonal NPS employees could threaten beach access for the thousands of people who vacation here.

A drastic loss of visitors will impact Ocracoke businesses that have from about May through October to make money.

According to an August poll by Pew Research, topping the list of popular federal agencies are the National Park Service (76% favorable), the U.S. Postal Service (72%) and NASA (67%).

In the last several weeks, public outcry throughout the country has helped to slow down and even reverse these terminations and restore the much-needed seasonal employees.

More than 40 percent of those employed by the federal government are private company contract workers — about 3.7 million — according to the nonpartisan Project on Government Oversight website. That’s more than the 2 million federal civilian employees, according to a May 2023 Federal News Network report.

Moreover, the federal government subsidizes major corporations to the tune of billions of dollars. What about cutting those gifts?

Is this all doom and gloom?

Someone involved with the North Carolina government for many years in a private conversation was more reassuring than many others.

“It will all work out,” they said.

Let’s hope so.

If you are concerned, now is the time to talk back.

To make your voice heard, the following are Washington phone numbers for Ocracoke’s Congressional representatives: Rep. Greg Murphy: 202-225-3415; Senator Thom Tillis: 202-224-6342; Senator Ted Budd: 202-224-3154.