Thousands of luminarias in Tumacácori will be dark this holiday, a casualty of the partial federal government shutdown.
The Tumacácori National Historic Park, including the visitors center and mission grounds, will remain closed until the federal budget crisis is resolved, interrupting a decades-old tradition of volunteers lighting candles along the walls of the historic Spanish mission south of Tucson.
The shutdown has closed virtually all area services run by the National Park Service.
One notable exception is the Grand Canyon, one of a handful of National Park Service-operated monuments that will remain open during the funding crisis. The state of Arizona has implemented a plan to keep services, such as shuttles and public restrooms, open during the partial federal government shutdown.
The Coronado National Forest is closed, but favorite spots including Sabino Canyon and Mount Lemmon remain accessible to the public.
The road up the Catalinas to the town of Summerhaven and other private properties on the mountain, for example, are maintained by Pima County and will remain open during the shutdown.
Saguaro National Park’s roads and trails are accessible to the public during the shutdown, but there are no services, since the park staff has been furloughed. The park’s visitor centers are closed, and scheduled programs at the park’s two units have been canceled.
The federal shutdown could also impact local public-housing programs, as landlords may receive delayed rent payments if the closure extends into the new year.
Public-housing tenants will have to pay their share of the rent, even if the city, which administers the federal programs, is late with its share of the rental payments.
Landlords can’t evict tenants because the city is late paying, and they also can’t ask tenants to pay the city’s share. Also, landlords can’t charge the city late-payment penalties, since the delays are caused by factors the city can’t control.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that there are about 12,700 federal employees in Pima County, although only a portion of that workforce has been furloughed.
Roughly half of the estimated 800,000 federal employees across the country have been told not to show up to work until the budget crisis is resolved.
Essential personnel — including the military, the Postal Service, Department of Veterans Affairs, Customs and Border Protection and Transportation Security Administration employees, who are part of the Department of Homeland Security, will continue to work through the partial shutdown.
The closure will not impact public entitlement programs, including Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and food stamps.
