Gregoire asks unions to open benefit talks

Gov. Chris Gregoire is asking state employees to reopen talks on health-care benefits, letting the state cut its $850 average monthly contribution to employee benefits as low as $801 in 2013.

The surprise call to negotiate served as a harbinger for today’s bigger news: Gregoire is expected to lay out grisly options for bridging a $2 billion budget shortfall in the 30-day special session scheduled to begin Nov. 28. Steep reductions in health care spending for the poor and vulnerable and cuts to public safety programs at the Department of Corrections are likely in the mix.

State budget director Marty Brown sent his request to renegotiate contracts Wednesday in a memo to more than two dozen unions that bargained jointly for health benefits last year. The offer was quickly rebuffed by the largest, the Washington Federation of State Employees, which represents about 40,000 state employees.

Brown said the memo was only a first request – akin to asking state agency directors last month to identify 10 percent cuts, which many did not want to do. Later, if lawmakers reduce allocations for programs, Gregoire could declare a fiscal emergency and reopen talks.

“We’re looking at every way in the world to cut costs. In some cases it’s to save services. In some it’s to save jobs. There is no stone that has been unturned,” Brown said. “Our first step here is to look at everything we can at the spending side – what is acceptable and what is unacceptable. There is an awful lot we will talk about tomorrow that is unacceptable.’’

He also said the coalition members “have every right to say no thanks. We have every right to ask. We haven’t gotten a formal response.”

The Federation of State Employees isn’t interested, union spokesman Tim Welch said. “We can’t speak for the coalition. As far as the federation is concerned, we are not interested in that tactic,’’ Welch said in a telephone interview.

The state now pays about $850 on average per month per worker for a cluster of benefits – including insurance for health, life, disability and other benefits.

But because benefits are on a calendar year basis, and open enrollment for 2012 coverage begins Nov. 1, it is too late to change benefits for the first 18 months of the biennium. That means the negotiation would be for the six months in 2013 covered by the ongoing budget, Brown said.

The federation and other major unions broke ground early this year by ratifying labor contracts that raised their share of health insurance premiums to 15 percent, up from 12 percent, and also reduced most state workers’ pay by 3 percent.

The union now is calling on Gregoire to convene a meeting with state corporate executives and ask them to accept a 3 percent reduction in their tax breaks. Gregoire is expected to look at new revenue ideas – whether taxes or new fees or reduced tax breaks – after first examining what the $2 billion in spending reductions might look like, according to Brown.

The state’s budget problem grew slightly worse Wednesday after a federal judge in Seattle issued a temporary injunction finding the state should not have disqualified 11,000 people from the state’s subsidized Basic Health Plan for low-income workers. About 17,000 people were disenrolled in February, and Health Care Authority spokeswoman Sharon Michael said the agency plans to offer re-enrollment to the 11,000.

Some of the disenrolled did not get notice of new eligibility requirements and some were unable to prove right away that their residence in the U.S. was five years or more, Michael said. The cost of letting people back onto the plan was not yet known, nor were the number of people who might reapply, Michael said.

Brad Shannon: 360-753-1688

bshannon@theolympian.com

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