COLDWATER, MI (WTVB)­ - Meetings coming up tonight for the Coldwater City Council, the Community Health Center of Branch County Board of Trustees and the Coldwater Board of Education. Some of the discussion, although not officially on the agendas, could be about the possible impact locally and on the state if the sequester budget cuts come down from Washington March First. The hit to Michigan is estimated to be at least 140-million dollars out of the 85-billion nationally.

10,000 civilian Department of Defense employees would be furloughed in Michigan and 14 million would be cut from military base operations in the state. 22-million in funding for public schools, mainly in poorer urban areas, and 20.3 million for teachers and teacher aides for children with disabilities. That would be a loss of about 540 teachers statewide. Law enforcement, environmental funding, job assistance programs, meals for the elderly, substance abuse treatment, college financial aid, and 23-hundred head start slots would be impacted.