With the federal government shutdown moving into yet another week there are fears for its impact on the Delmarva region. Delmarva Public Media's Don Rush talks with Bill Chambers, president and CEO of the Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce, about the implications for the local economy.
RUSH: The government shutdown is expected to stretch into another week. This is Don Rush. Both chambers on Capitol Hill appear to be stalemated with Speaker Mike Johnson declaring there is nothing to negotiate. Throwing the issue back into the Senate. We turn to Bill Chambers, president & CEO of the Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce, about the potential impact on the region.
CHAMBERS: Once we get past the 10th of this month, I think we'll see the impact start to trickle down more intensely. Annual federal spending in our state exceeds 150 billion, and that includes wages, retirement payments, contracts, grants. So 13% of all households in our state have at least one person [who] receives a paycheck or retirement income from the federal government. So this thing going into mid-October is going to have a significant impact on those folks. And then the trickle down effect. These folks not working, and obviously, they're not spending the money because they're not working. We've heard some figures that, about 15% or 13 million dollars a day could be the amount of money that we're going to be seeing lost out of our revenue stream. And the last time this happened in 2019, we were losing about $700,000 a day in terms of state revenue. So we don't want this to be another 34-day shutdown. This needs to get solved this week. This is reckless and it's anti-business, it's anti-citizen.
RUSH: If this thing goes on for a while, are businesses going to be hurt to such an extent where they're going to have a more difficult time recovering? How long term could this actually be if it goes on for a while?
CHAMBERS: Look, this is a perfect storm of callousness actually. You look at what's happening with the economy, the concern with tariffs, candy prices are skyrocketing because of the issue with tariffs and issues happening with imports. Then you add this government shutdown to it. Rural business communities recover slower than urban areas. This has happened during recessions. It happened during the pandemic, and it will happen again to areas on the Eastern Shore. If this shutdown continues to go on for weeks and God forbid, months, it will be significant. We'll see job losses, obviously, the loss of revenue, state and local, and especially Maryland. Maryland again, is so dependent on the federal presence that our state will be impacted even greater than other states.
RUSH: Any particular industries, by the way, that might be harder hit than others?
CHAMBERS: Well, if you're a federal worker, you won't have that disposable income not getting a paycheck here in another week. So you're going to see retailers, they'll be tight on spending in retail, tight on hospitality obviously. Your once a week restaurant visit won't be once a week if you're not getting a paycheck. I think manufacturing will be impacted. We're worried about the Port of Baltimore and how this is going to impact the port. And again, there's even concerns among the commercial air carriers here that serve Baltimore, Washington, and we have a new service here in Salisbury that this shutdown could eventually trickle down into delays and cancellations for their service.
RUSH: Bill Chambers, president and CEO of the Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce on the impact of the government shutdown. This is Don Rush for Delmarva Public Media.
