Wright-Patterson faces budget shortfall Published April 20, 2007 By Derek Kaufman 88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- The imperative to recapitalize and modernize the Air Force is about to directly impact many Airmen, civilian employees and their families at Wright-Patterson AFB. That's what Col. Colleen Ryan, 88th Air Base Wing commander, told men and women assembled during commander's call sessions this week. Her stated objective was to highlight the scope of the current constrained funding environment and a number of areas where cuts must be made in base services, in order to ensure "must pay" items like civilian personnel payroll and utilities are funded. "There is no more fat to trim from our budget," Col. Ryan said. Speaking frankly, she told wing members that leadership carefully scrutinized the wing's annual operations and maintenance budget and attempted to absorb significant cuts internally; however the scope of the deficit requires some contracts, services and activities to be reduced or curtailed. Most of the shortfall will have to come from funds used to operate and maintain the installation, so called O&M funding. A comparison of the wing's non-civilian pay O&M budget on the first day of fiscal year 2007 was $11 million less than the previous year, said Lt. Col. Trent Edwards, 88th Comptroller Squadron commander. A snapshot comparison of this fiscal year's budget with last year's offered another striking example of the funding challenge. The wing's current total budget authority for fiscal year 2007 is 26 percent less than what was actually obligated in the last fiscal year, Col. Edwards added. "We knew this O&M shortfall was coming because of the need to support modernization and recapitalization," Col. Edwards said. "In that respect, we're in the same boat every other base is in." "This really is about readiness. We are operating a smaller, older fleet with sustained and increasing Ops Tempo. We simply can't afford not to recapitalize and modernize our force--it's an investment in our future." It won't be easy, Lt. Col. Edwards went on to say. "We have budget challenges across the board, fuel prices are up nine percent, cost per flying hour is up 10 percent, spare parts costs are up six percent and our Depot Purchased Equipment Maintenance account is funded at only 75 percent of the requirement--down from 85 percent in (fiscal year 2006). We need Team Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to understand what we're dealing with and how they can help. This budget issue affects all of us." Anticipating the cuts, base leaders already had made a number of difficult decisions. Towel service within all fitness centers was eliminated more than a year ago. More recently, midnight meal service at the base dining facility was eliminated and the Jarvis fitness center closed. The annual fitness equipment maintenance contract was discontinued. Periodical subscriptions at the base library were cut by approximately 50 percent for fiscal year 2007. The base skills development center closed one day per week, as did the outdoor recreation office. A number of photography services have been reduced, and grounds maintenance for more than 180 acres in Area B will become less frequent. Many organizations have deferred purchase of supply and equipment items. In January wing leaders directed a hiring freeze for civilian positions anticipated to remain in effect for the foreseeable future. "The fact is we don't have the money available to fund our must pay items, so now we must make additional cuts and service reductions," Col. Ryan said. "We need to plan, program and successfully execute our mission with a reduced budget allocation." She said her intent was to absorb the shortfall internally to the wing, before making reductions impacting external customers. Examples to internal cuts implemented this week include: · Reduction in wing civilian overtime by 20 percent · Further reduction of supply purchases, travel and training, scrutinizing those to ensure support only mission-essential requirements · Cutting contracts to the minimum essential and streamlining to reap savings · Reduction of wing phone lines · Delay of some environmental restoration initiatives · Elimination of the wing commander's reserve, which typically supports a variety of requirements ranging from a Master Gate Plan study, to information technology upgrades to providing money to enhance realism during expeditionary combat skills training. Wing leaders then looked at cost cutting measures that will affect customers across the installation, Col. Ryan said. These include: · Reducing the vehicle operations fleet 20 percent and reducing hours of operation to 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays · Reducing or delaying some computer network services and equipment repairs · Reducing chiller (air conditioning) maintenance and repair capability · Reducing base supply capacity · Eliminating base library, skills development, and outdoor recreation purchases for new books, new equipment and equipment repairs · Reducing sustainment, restoration and modernization · Eliminating the fabrication capability, including flight suit insignia, in the Logistics Readiness Division's maintenance function · Eliminating the joint oil analysis program, supporting transient aircraft will be eliminated · Denying requests to operate most base government vehicles outside the 75-mile permissible operating distance of the base, except for honor guard and casualty notification · Reducing services marketing capability · Curtailing base recruiting efforts Civil engineer sustainment, restoration and modernization funding helps keep the infrastructure of the base operating and supports everything from the heating and chiller plant, to emergency roof and airfield repairs, said Col. Neal McElhannon, 88th ABW vice commander. It's just one of the "attention getters" when facing potential reductions. "Many of these cuts are not easy for us to implement, especially for an organization focused on delivering customer support," Col. Ryan said. "But they are absolutely necessary. As a result, customers across the installation may see slower response times to certain tasks. "You may also see some infrastructure degradation--not failings - because we are still going to do routine maintenance, but major repairs may have to wait. It's conceivable some customers may be provided temporary, band-aid fixes until additional resources are available for a permanent fix." For example, someone calling the computer customer support desk with a technical problem may not see the same turnaround on a trouble ticket that they were accustomed to, she said. The same would be true if someone called civil engineering with an air conditioning problem. Prioritization to prevent mission-critical adverse impacts will be the rule of the day, Col. Ryan said. "Less money means we need to do an even better job of prioritizing where those resources will go," she said. "We will keep a very close watch on how we prioritize our projects and make sure we are focusing on the most critical. Close coordination between our base civil engineers and the customer will be paramount." The colonel also reiterated that times like these underscore the importance of everyone on base practicing energy conservation. Last year, Wright-Patterson's utility bill was more than $30 million. Turning out the lights does make a difference, she said. "These funding challenges are simply a manifestation of operating in a new security environment with competing priorities and fewer resources," Col. Ryan said. "Funding is at the center of most change. Our challenge is how to strike the right balance as we must sustain mission capability and run a quality installation with limited resources." The colonel closed her commander's call with an appeal for all wing members to embrace Air Force Smart Operations 21 principles, which aim to improve efficiencies and eliminate unnecessary work. "As you go about your day-today business, be cognizant of this budget challenge and of our responsibility to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars," she said. "There are more things we can do more efficiently. We are looking for your ideas."