Article by Erik Smith. Published on Friday, October 29, 2011 EST.

Puts Lawmakers on Alert That Soon They Will Have a $2 Billion Problem

Gov. Christine Gregoire addresses reporters Thursday.

See Also: ‘A Lot Less of What People Expect’ – What the Governor Had to Say About the Upcoming Round of Budget Cuts
And: What State is After as it Calls Unions Back to the Table — Labor Rebuffs Request

By Erik Smith

Staff writer/ Washington State Wire

OLYMPIA, Oct. 28.—Gov. Christine Gregoire is giving the Legislature a big wake-up call as its special legislative session approaches, presenting her plans to slash the state budget by $2 billion, and putting lawmakers on notice that they get to do the same nasty job in a month.

            The governor laid it all out at a press conference Thursday morning, presenting a list of $4 billion in possible cuts that her staff has identified, and identifying her own top picks. Lawmakers will return to Olympia Nov. 28 for a special session to do the same thing, for real.

            The governor’s list of cuts goes on and on, slashing deeply and eliminating entire programs lawmakers have done their best to protect during three years of economic trouble. Things like school-levy equalization, state welfare programs, the Basic Health Plan and health insurance for children. Which probably helps explain the big silence from the Legislature ever since the scope of the problem became known. This round of cuts may be the hardest yet.

            “These are truly devastating,” the governor said. “People are not going to get what they need. They are not going to get the services they expect. I have laid out everything for everybody to see – you asked for that. It’s not just, however, for legislators or for you [in the press]. It’s also for our stakeholders. It’s for our citizens.”

            It is the same type of warning the governor has delivered the last three years, ever since Wall Street had its meltdown. Favorite programs will go; criminals will be turned into the streets. But there was a big difference this time. Normally the governor proposes her cuts when she presents her budget proposal. She’ll do that late next month, but this time around, she said she wanted to present the full list as early as possible.

            “This has never been done before,” she said. “As far as I know, a governor has never put forward a list of options a month before putting out a budget. And let me just tell you how grueling it has been. It has been grueling.”

            Maybe it’ll start the Legislature talking.

            This Time it’s Serious

            Most of the easiest big-dollar cuts have been made during the last three legislative sessions, as lawmakers eliminated plans to spend about $10 billion. Much of that trouble, it should be noted, was the result of a big ramp-up in spending when times were good during Gregoire’s first term – the state budget ballooned by a third. When the economy tanked that spending couldn’t be sustained. Some decisions couldn’t be taken back easily – they included big salary increases for state employees, for instance. At first federal money was available to help delay the reckoning, but at each go-round the cuts got tougher. And last session, so many majority Democrats were so unenthusiastic about slashing the budget that Republican votes were needed, and the GOP had a hand in decision-making for the first time in years.

            All those easier decisions make things harder this go-round. Most of the state’s $32 billion budget is off-limits, due to federal requirements, contracts and court decisions. Only $8.7 billion can be cut, the governor said, and that means a 23 percent cut in the few programs the Legislature have any control over.

            Among other things, the governor’s hit-list would:

·       Eliminate the Basic Health Plan, ending subsidized health insurance for 35,000 low-income workers.

·       Cut off medical services for 21,000 people enrolled in the Disability Lifeline and alcohol-and-drug treatment programs.

·       Cut support for colleges and universities by 15 percent, thus further driving up tuition.

·       Cut levy equalization payments by 50 percent, reducing the flow of money to poor and rural school districts.

·       Cut probation time for all offenders, down to two years for sex criminals and one year for everyone else.

·       Eliminate the sharing of state liquor store revenues with local governments.

·       Terminate funding for 134,000 children in the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

·       Reduce funding for state-employee health-insurance programs.

Not Touting Tax Increase – For Now

Gregoire said she isn’t touting a tax increase, one favorite idea of her fellow Democrats in the state Legislature. At least she isn’t doing it right away. Many in her party are talking up the idea of placing a tax measure on the ballot early next year. That tactic is required by Initiative 1053 and its two-thirds requirement to pass a tax increase in the Legislature. Republican votes would be needed, and they aren’t about to cooperate.

But the governor said she isn’t trying to scare the Legislature into a tax hike. Lawmakers have to pass budget cuts as soon as possible, or else they’ll have to go deeper. No tax increase could possibly go to the ballot soon enough, and the public would still have to vote yes – an iffy proposition. What it means, she said, is that the Legislature is compelled to pass an all-cuts budget sometime before Christmas.

             “What I’m trying to do is to be as honest with the public, the Legislature and you as I possibly can,” she told reporters Thursday. “This is what the cuts look like. We have to ask ourselves now, do we want to look at alternatives of revenue and what they might be, and do we want to go there? Those questions are before me now, before the legislators, before the public, and we will have to answer that over the course of the next 30 days.”

Leave Special Session for Budget

Though the governor announced the special session a month ago, the final step – a formal declaration – was left until Thursday. Copies of the proclamation were distributed at the news conference. The governor said she hopes lawmakers deal with the state’s biggest issue before turning to anything else. Lawmakers are scheduled to return to Olympia Jan. 9 for their regularly scheduled 60-day session.

That will be the right time to deal with issues like gay marriage, medical marijuana and everything else, she said. “For December I’m asking them to focus on the budget or any other crisis we have out there. In January, I’m asking them to focus on how to put Washington back to work. If people want to bring up other issues – you know, if you don’t think I expect to hear about medical marijuana, I do – I’m not going to preclude legislators from bringing that issue forward and me thoughtfully engaging with them. But I want us to see clearly in January that our top priority has got to be putting Washington back to work.”

            Republicans Give Credit

Republicans were giving the governor credit Thursday for laying everything out in advance. “The governor was not required to put any of her ideas on the table this soon, so I appreciate her willingness to go ahead and share this list,” said state Sen. Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield. Zarelli pledged Republican support for a bipartisan budget-cutting effort.

“I agree with the governor when she says government cannot do it all,” he said. “It will be up to the Legislature to decide what government should and should not be doing, and at what cost to taxpayers. We managed to accomplish that earlier this year, in a bipartisan manner, and that is my goal again.”

State Rep. Gary Alexander, the House Republican budget chief, noted that Republicans have argued for ages for some of the cuts in the governor’s proposal, notably the elimination of the state program for the adult disabled. But the cuts to the school-levy program and probation supervision are worrisome. “Surely we can find a better way to balance our budget than making our neighborhoods less safe,” he said. “I understand this is just a point from which to begin discussions. I look forward to bringing solutions to the table that will create a balanced, sustainable budget.”

And House Minority Leader Richard DeBolt said you can be sure Republicans will be skeptical of any proposal to raise taxes. “For too long, the Legislature has ignored the factors contributing to this economic downturn. When it comes to generating tax revenue, state government is its own worst enemy. The state needs to get the weight of big government off the backs of employers and working families. We need to unleash the power of the private sector to create jobs and get Washington working again. This is a vastly better idea than trying to raise taxes on people when they can least afford it.”

            From the Left, a Call for Taxes

Just as predictably, those on the left were saying the governor had just made an excellent case for raising taxes. Remy Trupin, executive director of the Washington Budget and Policy Center issued a statement:

            “The plan rolled out by the Governor this morning is absolutely the wrong direction for Washington state. We cannot create jobs and get our economy back on track through deep cuts to education, health care, and social services. This one-sided, lopsided approach will do significant damage to the very things that make our state a good place to live, work, and do business.

“Policymakers must take a balanced approach. We need to raise revenue now to address our immediate needs and make structural changes so that our revenue system is adequate and sustainable in the long-term. This includes eliminating ineffective tax breaks and temporarily increasing and permanently modernizing the state sales tax. In the long-term, we can enact a new tax on capital gains and strengthen our rainy day fund. 

“Budgets always require hard decisions, but a budget that cuts children, families, and older adults without any tax reform is not just a hard decision – it’s a bad decision.

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