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Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch Braces For Sequester Cuts

HARTFORD, Conn. (CBSNewYork) - On the minds of most big city mayors around the country today is the impact of federal budget cuts if there's no agreement between Congress and President Barack Obama to avert the sequester.

With no sign of an agreement, $85 billion in across the board cuts will go into effect on Friday.

As the mayor of Connecticut's largest city, Bridgeport's Bill Finch said Thursday he never thought he'd see the day when huge federal budget cuts hang like the sword of Damocles over cities and towns.

Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch Braces For Sequester Cuts

He told WCBS 880 Connecticut Bureau Chief Fran Schneidau that Bridgeport counts on federal funding for education and sheltering and feeding the poor.

Finch said he has no idea how long his city can stay above water before feeling the hit.

"It doesn't seem like it's going to happen right away. It's a little bit like, you know, cooking a lobster. The water gets hot gradually and then the result comes about," he told Schneidau.

Without federal funds to provide housing for so many city residents, Mayor Finch forecasts a jump in the unemployment rate, not only locally, but nationally.

"This is a pretty thoughtless act that's going on," Finch said of the sequester. "People probably thought that no one would ever quite this stupid to pull the trigger, but people are."

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