State budgets may lead to taxes
State House Democrats on Tuesday rolled out their budget, a proposal they say has $4 billion in “hard cuts” from what otherwise would have been a $34 billion spending plan through mid-2011.
But not all their cards are on the table yet, even though the Senate unveiled its budget Monday and Gov. Chris Gregoire presented her spending plan in mid-December.
Still to come is a tax package from groups hardest hit by budget cuts, with some coordination from legislators.
“It’s very likely that a proposal will come,” said Rep. Kelli Linville, D-Bellingham, chairwoman of the House Ways and Means Committee. But “the revenue package is not something we’re pinning all of our hopes on.”
As their Senate counterparts did, House budget-writers balanced their 2009-11 state operating budget by using $3 billion in federal funds, by transferring nearly $800 million from construction projects, and by raiding surpluses left in many other state accounts. Otherwise, the cuts would have been deeper as lawmakers try to deal with a projected $9 billion budget shortfall.
“We are using federal money, which has been a godsend,” Linville said.
It’s this use of one-time funds, both federal and transfers, that has opened majority Democrats to criticism by minority Republicans in both chambers.
“Washington citizens need long-term leadership, not short-term fixes,” said Rep. Gary Alexander, R-Olympia, top Republican on the House budget committee. “Placing a Band-Aid on our budget problems in the hopes of a better economy in the future or for voter-approved tax increases down the road is the wrong approach.
“They propose to spend $5 billion that we know will not be available the next time we sit down to write a budget,” Alexander said.
Federal stimulus funds are retroactive to October 2008 and continue through late 2010. The $787 billion federal stimulus plan doesn’t provide money for the 2011-13 state budget cycle.
House budget-writers would freeze pay for 250,000 state, college and public school employees – just as Gregoire and the Senate did in their budget proposals. They also would cut funding to those same public schools, universities and state agencies, which would likely result in thousands of layoffs and fewer students attending college.
However, House Democrats declined to put numbers to the job losses because their budget would give agencies, school districts and higher-education administrators wide latitude to decide where to make specific cuts, said Rep. Mark Ericks, D-Bothell, vice chairman of the House’s main budget committee.
In general, House members would make deeper cuts to higher education than the Senate budget-writers, largely because they would then let the colleges backfill some of those cuts with money from tuition increases.
The House would let the University of Washington and five other four-year universities raise tuition by as much as 10 percent in each of the next two years, and let the 34 two-year community and technical colleges boost tuition by 7 percent. The Senate budget would allow 7 percent and 5 percent tuition hikes, respectively.
The House budget also assumes about $100 million in savings by letting some inmates out of prison early and by shortening the time they remain under supervision after their release. That would appear to result in about 300 layoffs at the state Department of Corrections.
But unlike the Senate budget proposal, the House wouldn’t close the prison on McNeil Island in mid-2010 and transfer its 1,300 inmates to other facilities. It would, however, close seven of 88 state fish hatcheries and a juvenile detention camp at Naselle, Pacific County.
Both the House and Senate budgets would keep $850 million in reserve in case the economy takes another turn for the worse and state tax collections decline even further.
The Statewide Poverty Action Network, a group of advocates for the poor, is urging lawmakers to look at raising some taxes to avoid some of the Legislature’s proposed deep cuts.
“Now more than ever we need our public structures to provide security and opportunity to help people through these dark times,” said Tony Lee, advocacy director for Solid Ground, a nonprofit social service organization based in Seattle.
Joseph Turner: 253-597-8436
blogs.thenewstribune.com/politics
HOUSE vs. SENATE BUDGETS
| |
House |
Senate |
| K-12 school cuts |
$625 million |
$877 million |
| College tuition hikes |
10% maximum |
7% maximum |
| Amount in savings |
$852 million |
$854 million |
| McNeil Island prison |
Leave open |
Close it |
STATE BUDGET COMPARISONSThe state House and the Senate have come up with differing ways to close the same $9 billion budget shortfall that’s projected over the next 28 months. Each budget has thousands of elements, and strict comparisons are difficult to make. The list below is an effort to make comparisons.
HOUSE BUDGET PROPOSAL
• Public school and state agency job cuts: Unknown. Could be 7,000.
• Freezes pay for state and public school employees for two years.
• Extra money to reduce class size: Cut from $458 per student to $184 in 2009-10 and to $152 in 2010-11.
• Tuition: Allows 10 percent hikes for four-year colleges, 7 percent for two-year colleges.
• No estimate for cuts to college enrollment, but leaves decision to universities.
• Cuts overall higher-education funding by $683 million.
• Basic Health Plan: State subsidy continues for about 65,000 people, down from 106,000.
• Adult Day Health program for low-income seniors: Eliminated.
• Alcohol and Drug Addiction Treatment Support Act program: Cut by about 10 percent.
• Lets 50 percent of ex-cons who violate terms of release from jail spend punishment time in home detention.
• Keeps McNeil Island prison open.
• Closes Naselle Youth Camp in Naselle, Pacific County, by Jan. 1, 2010.
• Parks: Assumes a $5 voluntary fee on license tabs. Seasonal closures.
• Liquor stores: Opens 15 new ones.
• Federal stimulus: Spends $3 billion.
SENATE BUDGET PROPOSAL
• Public school and state agency job cuts: Estimated at 7,000.
• Freezes pay for state and public school employees for two years.
• Extra money to reduce class size: Cut from $458 per student to $31 per student for both school years.
• Tuition: Allows 7 percent hikes for four-year colleges, 5 percent for two-year colleges.
• Estimated cut of 10,500 college enrollment slots, but leaves decision to universities.
• Cuts overall higher-education funding by $513 million.
• Basic Health Plan: State subsidy continues for about 65,000 people, down from 106,000.
• Adult Day Health program for 1,900 low-income seniors: Reduced to those who live in own homes.
• Alcohol and Drug Addiction Treatment Support Act program: Fully funded.
• Lets 25 percent of ex-cons who violate terms of their release from jail spend punishment time in home detention.
• Closes McNeil Island prison July 1, 2010.
• Closes Green Hill juvenile detention center in Chehalis.
• Parks: Assumes a $5 voluntary fee on license tabs. No closures.
• Liquor stores: Opens 15 new ones.
• Federal stimulus: Spends $3 billion.
Analysis by Joseph Turner, The News Tribune
WHAT’S NEXTToday is Day 80 of the Legislature’s scheduled 105-day session. Negotiators for the House, the Senate and the governor’s office have been working behind the scenes for weeks and will continue to do so in hopes of reaching agreement on a budget by April 26. That’s when lawmakers are supposed to adjourn.
