Army, Taxed by War Costs, Struggles to Pay Bills at Home

[Richard Tafoya]

NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/us...erland&emc=rss

A diversion of money for the war in Iraq has helped create a $530 million shortfall for Army posts at home and abroad, leaving some of them unable to pay utility bills or even cut the grass, military officials say.

In San Antonio, Fort Sam Houston has not paid its $1.4 million monthly utility bill since March, prompting workers in many of the post's administrative buildings to receive automated disconnection notices.

Fort Bragg in North Carolina says it will not buy any office supplies until the new fiscal year starts in October.
And in Kentucky, Fort Knox closed one of its eight dining halls for a month and laid off 133 contract workers.

"Every time something goes away, it impacts a person: a soldier or their family or one of our civilians," said Col. Wendy Martinson, garrison commander at Fort Sam Houston, which has 27,300 military and civilian workers. "I'm charged with taking care of them, not taking things away from them."

Garrisons function as the city halls of Army installations, providing services like garbage removal, mail delivery and firefighting. The Installation Management Agency of the Army is $530 million short of what it needs through Oct. 1 to finance garrisons at the 117 installations it oversees in the United States, Europe and Asia, said an agency spokesman, Stephen Oertwig.