NATCHEZ — With the threat of a series of automatic budget cuts looming on Friday, local agencies are sitting on their hands, waiting to see how sequestration could affect their budgets.

Sequestration is a series of across-the-board cuts to government agencies that would total $1.2 trillion over 10 years. It is an attempt to control the growth of the national debt, which is approximately $16 trillion.

The cuts will take effect Friday, if congressional leaders do not work out a deal to avoid the cuts. President Obama and congressional leaders are scheduled to meet Friday to discuss sequestration.

In Mississippi, Louisiana and other states across the county, sequestration could cut funding from education, Head Start programs, law enforcement, military, job search assistance, public health, domestic violence victim services, meals for seniors and other programs.

The White House claims sequestration could cut millions of dollars in education funding for Mississippi and Louisiana.

Because any cuts to federal funding provided to Miss-Lou school districts won’t be effective until the next fiscal year, business managers on both sides of the river said they are waiting to see what happens Friday before making any sudden changes.

The Natchez-Adams School District receives approximately $9.9 million, or 25 percent of its $40 million budget, in federal funding, which includes Title I and special education programs, among others.

Natchez-Adams business manager Margaret Parson said she has not begun to plan for any potential cuts to that funding.

“We don’t know how much it’s going to be or what programs it would affect,” Parson said. “We’re going to wait and see what happens on Friday.”

A report released by the White House said statewide cuts in Mississippi could mean a loss of nearly $5.5 million in funding cuts for primary and secondary education and would put about 80 teachers and aids jobs at risk.

Parson said the $9.9 million in federal funding the district received for the 2012-2013 fiscal year has already been allocated and wouldn’t be affected by any decisions made this week.

“If those do go into effect, we will budget according to how much is cut,” Parson said. “And we’re still in the early beginnings of the budgeting process, so that will help us.”

The NASD’s fiscal year begins July 1.

Across the river in Concordia Parish, federal funding makes up $5.8 million, or 12 percent, of the overall $48 million budget.

Superintendent Paul Nelson said a great deal of uncertainty over the cuts exists, but that he was told to plan for a 10-percent cut.

“Things are really not certain at this point,” Nelson said. “We still have some time before we will begin to seriously look at the Title I budgets.”

Director of Business Affairs Tom O’Neal said that until more details are provided on which programs will be cut, planning for cuts wouldn’t necessarily be proactive.

“We don’t know if they’re talking about school lunch programs or just Title I programs or what,” O’Neal said. “Theoretically, all of them would be affected in some ways, but the issue right now is that I don’t think anyone really knows what it will affect.

“We’re not quite panicking just yet because we don’t know what exactly is going to happen.”

The White House report estimated Louisiana would lose approximately $15.8 million in funding for primary and secondary education, putting around 220 teacher and aide jobs at risk.

Any decisions made this week, Nelson and O’Neal said, wouldn’t go into effect until the 2013-2014 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

AJFC Community Action Agency chief executive officer Sandra Sewell said the agency is discussing what would need to be done if it lost funding because both community action agencies and Head Start programs have been specifically identified as groups that would be impacted by the sequester. AJFC operates a local Head Start program.

“Some of what we are hearing is perhaps a 5-percent reduction in some of our strategies, but we don’t know what that would amount to in dollars,” Sewell said. “We are making plans, because if the sequestration comes, it is going to impact us both personnel- and service-wise. We have looked at various aspects of our program so we can see where those cuts have to be taken from.

“We are looking at what we do and at the individuals and personnel it takes to do those things. We are holding our breath and hoping that some miracles occur and that it won’t take place.”

Another area identified as likely to be impacted is justice and law enforcement grant funding.

Adams County Youth Court Judge John Hudson said that while his court doesn’t have any direct federal funding, cuts could still affect what the court does.

“Much of the services we do come through the state but are funded by federal funds, but we have gotten no directive from the state saying if any of those will be impacted,” Hudson said. “A good bit of that is connected to federal reimbursement of the state, so we are in a wait-and-see situation.”

Adams County Sheriff Chuck Mayfield said the only area that he sees being impacted is Metro Narcotics, where a federal grant funds a portion of the salary of two agents and a secretary.

“It is not that much, so if we happen to lose it, we will have to make it up ourselves,” Mayfield said.

Adams County funds one of the agents and the secretary are funded, Mayfield said, with the other agent in question funded by the City of Natchez.

Mississippi could lose approximately $138,000 in funding for the Justice Assistance Grants program, which the Natchez Police Department has regularly used to purchase bulletproof vests, SWAT team radios and other items, Capt. Tom McGehee said.

NPD is currently not utilizing JAG funding because a grant was not applied for under former Chief Mike Mullins during the last grant cycle.

The grant application will be available in April, McGehee said.

The department will not feel the sting of any potential loss of JAG funding this year, McGehee said, because a private donor is purchasing 43 bulletproof vests for NPD.

Military budget cuts could affect the U.S. Coast Guard office here in Natchez, but Master Chief Randy Merrick said the official word from the top is “stand by.”

“They’re obviously telling us to be more fiscally responsible,” Merrick said. “But at this point, I don’t really know what will happen.”

Mississippi could lose approximately $350,000 in funding for job search assistance, referral and placement, services offered by the local WIN Job Center.

Kathryn Stokes with the Mississippi Department of Employment Security, which oversees WIN Job Centers in the state, said emergency unemployment compensation is the only WIN Job Center program so far that has been identified for budget cuts. The program could be cut by a certain percentage, but that amount has not been determined yet, Stokes said.

Stokes said 135 people in Adams County applied for emergency employment compensation last week.

“The emergency employment compensation, (which is) for people who have exhausted their regular benefits, will see a percentage reduction in benefits, but we have not been provided a number of what that percentage will be,” she said.

The department will still be able to provide a lot of its services, Stokes said, because they are offered online.

MDES is awaiting guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor on the effect of sequestration on its operations and should have more information in the next few days, Stokes said.

Mississippi could also lose approximately $283,000 in funding for public health.

Mississippi State Department of Health Director of Communications Liz Sharlot said MSDH is looking at different scenarios and working on contingency plans in the event sequestration cuts hit the department.

“We want to wait until everything is done to talk about (the effect on services),” Sharlot said. “We want to wait until we actually see what is going on. We have certainly been looking at this for several months and considering options.”