Several Bowling Green city employees said they are concerned about losing federal funding for some local sustainability programs and projects over the next few years after President Donald Trump signed off on new federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) mandates in January.
Cuts in federal funding and Trump’s Jan. 21 executive order aimed at rolling back DEI initiatives in the federal government could trickle down to localities like Bowling Green, causing departments of the city’s government, including its sustainability program, to face financial deficits. Climate change is considered DEI because it has been labeled a “controversial belief,” and sustainability is part of this policy area.
“We do occasionally go after federal funding and state funding that is funneled down from the federal level, so I would say a concern of ours is losing some our funding sources in the foreseeable future,” said Amanda Gamby, director of communications in Bowling Green’s Department of Sustainability and Public Outreach.
Ohio receives large sums of federal money annually, with some being sent to cities directly. The latest U.S. Census Bureau data found $43.6 billion came into Ohio state and local governments from the federal government in the fiscal year 2022 alone.
Gamby said her department has already felt some specific impacts of decreases in this funding.
“Our urban forester had a federal grant that was helping improve and maintain tree canopy in the city and has been told to stop spending on that indefinitely,” she said. “We were also successful in securing millions of dollars to put in a shared use path along North Main Street, but we have been told that agreement is also in jeopardy.”
Gamby also said she anticipates grant and funding opportunities will continue to decline over the next three years.
“The focus of the current administration does not lean toward these types of initiatives,” she said. “It clearly has different priorities and goals.”
Despite federal funding cuts, Gamby said she is not concerned about losing her job or for the future of Bowling Green’s sustainability department.
“Typically, what I see when we are working under a federal administration that is pulling away from sustainability and environmental topics is our community doubling down,” she said. “They start to almost demand more from us to compensate for what they are hearing at the federal level.”
Rachel Sizer, the city of Bowling Green’s sustainability coordinator, also said she is not worried about losing her job because positions like hers are less specialized at the local level.
“Positions like mine are the ones people are leery of right now at the federal level,” Sizer said. “But if my position were to be eliminated, it would leave a huge gap in what I do on a day-to-day basis, so it just wouldn’t make sense for these positions to disappear locally like they are federally.”
Gamby and Sizer also said while they may have to come at public outreach from new angles, they are confident they can still get people on board with the city’s sustainability initiatives by continuing to “meet people where they are at.”
“It’s easy for us to get into a doomsday mindset by turning on the news or opening social media, but we are not going to stop what we are doing here just because of what’s going on at the federal level,” Gamby said. “We might not have some funds available, but that doesn’t mean we can’t keep moving the needle.”
