The Legislature moved ahead Friday in taking some early steps to save money as lawmakers continue grappling with a $2.6 billion budget deficit.
The Senate approved a measure that directs agencies to trim about $70 million in payroll costs through furloughs and other steps. The measure, Senate Bill 6503, passed on a 27-17 vote and now heads to the House for further consideration.
Under the measure, if the agencies don’t present a plan on how they’ll make the cuts, they will have to shut down for one day a month for 13 months starting in June. Originally, lawmakers were looking at making government shut down for a total of 16 days, without the flexibility of letting agencies find other ways of cutting payroll costs.
“The underlying premise of this bill is that it is better to have less of a job than no job,” Sen. Rodney Tom, D-Medina, said.
A long list of state workers would be exempt from furloughs under the bill, including police, corrections officers, college instructors, and park and ferry workers.
Some worried that the furloughs would financially hurt too many workers.
“I think there are some ironies here,” said Sen. Karen Fraser, D-Olympia, one of two Democrats to vote against the bill. “While we’re trying to create family wage jobs around the state, this is going to reduce family wage jobs.”
Republicans said the measure was just pushing the state’s problems down the road.
“Nothing about our situation is temporary,” said Sen. Joseph Zarelli, R-Ridgefield. “Furloughs, temporary layoffs, these things are not going to solve anything. We cannot simply look at temporary ways until somehow we win the lottery. It’s not going to happen.”
On a 29-14 vote, the Senate also passed a wage freeze that would build on a similar plan enacted last year, when the Legislature began wrestling with its current budget woes.
The freeze, Senate Bill 6382, would affect nonunion workers at state agencies, colleges and universities. An exception is granted for positions where employers have difficulty retaining qualified people, but in those cases raises can be paid only with existing resources.
Republicans argued that since unionized workers who are covered under contracts aren’t affected by the freeze, one set of employees will be treated differently than others.
“This is not treating people equally and fairly,” Sen. Linda Evans Parlette, R-Wenatchee, said.
Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said it would be illegal for the Legislature not to recognize collective bargaining contracts that employees are currently covered by.
Earlier in the day, the state House approved a House Bill 2921, which would trim about $47 million from state spending. It reinforces some cost-cutting actions that Gov. Chris Gregoire started taking before the legislative session started. The savings bill passed on a vote of 77-19 and now heads to the Senate.
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