TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE — Force reduction measures and degradation of military benefits could have an effect on local service members under the Pentagon’s proposed budget cuts.
The Pentagon officially unveiled its 2015 budget proposal Tuesday as part of the White House’s total budget request. The first post-Afghanistan war budget calls for a drawdown of Army and Air Force personnel, but invests additional funding in training, new weapons systems and special operations.
The budget still requires approval of Congress, where a heated battle is expected.
Although the budget calls for the Army to reduce its ranks by 40,000 to 50,000 over last year, the Air Force will take a more modest hit at 20,400, or about 4 percent of its airmen.
There are between 3,000 and 3,500 airmen stationed at Tyndall Air Force Base.
Tyndall spokesman Herman Bell said he didn’t have any information from Washington on the local impact.
The budget seeks a 1 percent pay increase for service members in 2015, and calls for slowing increases in housing allowances and a slight reduction in medical benefits in order to trim payroll expenses.
Congressman Jeff Miller criticized the proposal, saying the president was asking the Defense Department to single-handedly shoulder the burden of reducing the country’s spending.
“This (defense budget) is well below the levels that it should be, given the world situation,” he said Tuesday evening, adding he believes the defense budget should account for 4 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. “The president keeps using Department of Defense ashis own personal piggy bank.”
Miller said he still was reviewing the proposal.
Only about 1 percent of civilian positions across the country would be cut under the proposed budget.
Although the Pentagon’s baseline budget request is $400 million less than 2014, it also asks for an additional $26.4 billion in a separate initiative designed to offset the affects of sequestration.
News Herald staff writer Chris Olwell contributed to this report.