Fort Sam (Houston) lacks cash to pay the light bill

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA060906.01A.fort_sam_freeze.21e464d7.html


It's stranger than fiction, a tale bizarre beyond belief: The Army that helped conquer Iraq in three weeks doesn't have enough cash to keep the lights on at Fort Sam Houston.

The post is in crisis mode, not dark but deep in the red.

Its garrison office, which provides services to more than 70 tenant commands, has frozen hiring, shut off cell phones and BlackBerry devices, turned in leased cars and forbidden troops from using government credit cards. If a computer breaks down, the tenant command has to pay for the part.

The post's $1.4 million-a-month CPS Energy bill is due June 30.

"I don't have the money to pay that bill right now, but I believe the Army will assist us," said Col. Wendy Martinson, Fort Sam's garrison commander.
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even our military is joining the ranks of the newly poor

and there is this:

Fort Sam, the future home of IMA as it moves from Washington under the base-closure process, isn't the agency's only problem. IMA is responsible for 116 posts worldwide and is involved with many other Army installations in some way, spokesman Ned Christensen said, adding: "They are all affected."


"they are all affected" with being newly poor

what's IMA?

"Support the troops! Braawk! Support the troops!"

sam houston is my great great great great grandfather.

on weapons systems backed by investors such as Carlysle that are known to be not needed, nor likely to never work - except to make a killing in profits due to an excessively large outlay by BUsh's pentagon. :shrug:

But this should be seen as the fault of the Republicans but it wont. Back home in Texas they will find away to blame the Democratic Party for this.

...or operated under the mistaken belief that it would be restored, and continued to conduct business as usual, expecting Congress to shell out a supplemental.

Fort Sam is grappling with a $26 million budget shortfall partly because of congressional wrangling over a measure to fund wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But problems at Fort Sam and many of the Army's 179 posts worldwide won't be over even if Congress approves a $94.5 billion supplemental appropriations bill next week as expected.

The war, rising military health care costs and Pentagon efforts to transform the armed services will make sure of that.

The garrison has stared down a budget crunch since August. It sought $121 million to run operations on the post, which has 27,000 military and civilian workers.

But the Installation Management Agency, which provides funding to the garrison, reduced the post's budget to $65.9 million — $12.2 million less than last year and $26 million short of the absolute minimum that Martinson needs.

Stand by for serious austerity measures above and beyond what is already happening there. You'll see buyouts, early retirements, and layoffs next, if they don't get the dough they need.

Like when he didn't want to fund any government operations leading to a total shutdown of all ops. What an imbecile.