Article by Erik Smith. Published on Friday, October 30, 2011 EST.

Fourth Round of Cuts Will be ‘Truly Devastating,’ Gregoire Says

See Also:  Governor Shows How She’ll Slash the Budget – Soon it Will be Legislature’s Turn
And: What State is After as it Calls Unions Back to the Table — Labor Rebuffs Request

By Washington State Wire staff

OLYMPIA, Oct. 28. – Gov. Christine Gregoire took the unusual step Thursday of outlining the cuts she is contemplating as she prepares a supplemental budget that will be presented to the Legislature in a special session that begins Nov. 28. The following is the full text of her prepared remarks, delivered at a news conference at the state Capitol:

“I think I have shared with you before that the work of slashing $2 billion would be dreadful, and let me just assure you that is what it is the result of this process is – that our Washingtonians will get a lot less of what they truly need from state government. The fact is, this is what the options look like after we have cut spending by over $10 billion since this great recession began three years ago. Ten-and-a-half billion dollars cut in three years.

“This is what our choices look like even after we have cut thousands of workers, money to our public schools, our colleges and universities, we have shut down prisons and we’ve shredded our safety net for the old, the sick and the poor. We’re another $2 billion in the hole. The citizens will get a lot less of what they expect. This is what our options look like even after having taken the biggest steps to reform state government in decades, maybe even the last century.

“This morning is not about cold hard numbers. This is very personal. We are talking about real Washingtonians, our Washingtonians. They are all around us. They are people in our neighborhoods, the people that we meet on the street, the kids in our schools. And they have needs that we will no longer be able to meet. And what I’m laying out here this morning hurts.

            Putting Myself in Their Shoes

“This is not what I signed up to do when I started as a caseworker 40 years ago, but it is what Wall Street has done in its meltdown, what it has handed our state, what it has handed to our country.

“Lately I wake up at night and I think about if I put myself in the shoes of the person that I am hurting. Well, then, who am I? Who are the people behind the numbers that are represented today? Well, I could be the Federal Way mother whose child must learn in a much larger class. I am the middle class high school senior in Aberdeen who cannot get to college because they can’t afford it. I am the grandma in Yakima who needs over-the-counter medication that can’t afford it. I am the young man in Seattle, I am out of prison five months earlier; I have nowhere to go and nobody to be, and I may be that individual’s next burglary victim.

“I am the County Commissioner in Yakima, in rural Eastern Washington – I can’t afford to keep the sheriffs office at full strength and make sure I’m maintaining the roads. I am the community corrections officer in Vancouver who knows the people that I have supervised and I worry about the safety of our neighborhoods when that supervision goes away. I am the Vietnamese immigrant in Spokane trying to improve my English to get a better job, but I can’t until I master the language. I am the drug addict in Walla Walla who finally wants to quit but the treatment isn’t there. I am the mentally ill woman in Olympia, Washington on a street corner tormented by voices in my head and there is no help for me. I am the young woman in Bellingham trying to escape my abuser with few places to turn. I am the war veteran coming home to no job and to no help, to find a job.

“But then, as we put ourselves in the shoes of these folks and I have to say to myself, I can’t do that, I am the governor, I have to confront the reality that the people of our state are not spending. Businesses are not hiring. We need to cut $2 billion more and these and other Washingtonians will not get what they need.

            Cuts Are ‘Truly Devastating’

“We are done with what I call the Pac-Man budgeting approach. Three years of bite and bite across government cannot solve this problem. The services that we do keep still have to work. So today I am presenting the Legislature with some very focused, very big bites and in some cases whole program eliminations, in education, in public safety, in healthcare and social services. It’s a long list of options that I have reviewed over and over and over again with OFM and my policy shop. And along with that, my choices in what will get us through and plug the hole of a $2 billion shortfall, coming on top of $10 billion in cuts.

“These are truly devastating. 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, total transparency – you asked for that. It’s not just however for legislators or for you [in the press]. It’s also for our stakeholders. It is for our citizens.

“It’s in the packet before you. You see the cut options of more than $4 billion that we have vetted as best we can, and my choice is worth over $2 billion. It’s all there. Solid information that informed and guided us, such as litigation that stymies our budget reductions, real facts and real figures on our workforce.

“Some of that represents answers to questions that you asked and others ask all the time, so please take a good look, starting with my options. They make clear that citizens are not going to get what they need from our state government, because we simply cannot afford it.

            Legislature Must Make Difficult Choices

“I am asking the Legislature to make these very difficult choices, too. If people should disagree with the choices I’ve made, I respect that. I’m not happy either. But ultimately when they look at the list of options or propose others, they, too, must come up with similar cuts. It is not good enough to simply say, do not cut my program. My choices notwithstanding, I truly believe no one person has the magic answer to this situation in which we find ourselves.

“My greater intent is to offer a basic preliminary budget so everybody – legislators, citizens, stakeholders – can begin the discussion to help us move quickly to a solution.

“As for me, I have asked myself, for all of our citizens, really what should we ask them, which ones of the programs are most important? Which ones by necessity are we forced to do without?

“I’m guided by the following principles. Our children really do deserve the best education and one that we can truly offer them and that of businesses so that they can both be successful. Our economy has got to be a top priority for us.

“Our vulnerable citizens still need protection, especially in these difficult times. We must use our limited funds to keep Washingtonians as safe as we can on the streets and in their homes. Direct services must trump advocacy services for scarce dollars, and finally these principles, these values have to evolve as funding falls. Washingtonians should be served to the best of our ability, within the reality of our limited funds.

“I will follow through with an actual proposed budget, to be rolled out after the November 17 revenue forecast and before the Legislature begins its special session on November 28.

            Laying it All Out

“A small caution – these times demand that I share with you today an unprecedented level of detail in the building of the budget, but I simply can’t be sure that there will not be changes in what I’ve presented. I will work with legislators and many others in preparing that actual final budget, but let me be clear, the cuts can only come from the one-third of our budget not protected by law or contract. That’s $8.7 billion available, from which we have to cut $2 billion. That is a 23 percent cut.

“As I said, these cuts are now through muscle and into the bone of services that our people need and demand. This is not just a Washington state problem. We are in dire straits, but all but two states are in a similar situation, with governors from both parties. Why? Because of the reckless behavior of Wall Street that touched off a financial panic three years ago, along with the European debt crisis and a Congress that simply can’t get the job done. We in Washington state are especially vulnerable because half of our revenue comes from the sales tax, and the bottom line is people simply are not buying.

“But I have a continuing responsibility to bring spending in line with falling revenue, even when it means our people can no longer get what they need. I also have a responsibility to make government cheaper, faster and better.

            Government is Leaner

“We have made huge strides. We have achieved the largest consolidation of state agencies in two decades. They’ve saved businesses more than $1 billion over four years in L & I reform, and another $300 million in unemployment insurance costs. We are now one of the best states with a trust fund that is intact for workers comp and for unemployment insurance in the country.

“We have made billions of dollars in cuts to our state pensions. The bottom line is that we have one of the healthiest public pension systems in America. We have cut millions in prescription drugs by executing a buy-generic strategy, and over the last three budget cycles we have saved hundreds of millions of dollars in equipment purchases. We have cut out-of-state travel by two thirds to save nearly $10 million.

“We’ve reduced the ranks of middle managers by nearly 10 percent since I took office, and we put the workers on the front line. We have eliminated nearly 160 boards and commissions. The lists go on and on. Again, we are not only cutting – we are increasing our capacity to serve with fewer resources.

“But for some none of this seems to matter. Their view of government is, in effect, it works best when there is no government. They are wrong, absolutely wrong and often these are the very same people who, when we cut, criticize that.

             Getting So Much Smaller All the Time

“What Washingtonians need is smart government, lean government, efficient government. That’s not a Republican or Democrat idea. It’s what anyone in public service sets out to do. It’s what we have done.

“We’ve even done more of it in these hard times. Part of making government smaller has been to cut our workforce. Unlike the private sector where the demand drops along with the economy, ours goes up regardless.

“We are right-sizing government. Here is the truth about our workforce we’ve reduced it by almost 10 percent since 2008, and as you can see from these options, we will obviously be reducing it more. Our remaining employees have taken furloughs; they’ve taken pay cuts, they are paying more for health care. They are paying more for pensions.

“Rows and rows of cubicles are empty at state offices, and guess what? The federal and local governments are now hiring away state employees. Let me repeat that. The federal and local governments are now raiding my state employees. My priority now has to be to stabilize my workforce, to give them the tools they need to get their jobs done in new and demanding ways.

“One example is we have partnered with Boeing to launch lean-management tools across our agencies, and we already are seeing early successes. Again, obviously there will be more layoffs. Just last week 220 layoff notices went out to Employment Security [workers]. That’s 9 percent of their workforce. To those who feel that’s not enough, we have 1 million more people than we did 10 years ago, but we have 2,000 fewer public servants serving that population that we did one decade ago.

“I see the impact in my visits to state agencies. People are taking on a lot more work, because some of their colleagues frankly are on their unemployment line. DSHS has lost 14 percent of its employees. It is struggling to answer the telephone from Washingtonians who need help, because they’re too busy answering the call for help from those who were finally able to get through.

            Still Room for Hope

“So this is where we are today. I will see you again when I roll out my budget, as soon after the 17th as I can. For now, I respectfully ask the Legislature to come to town Nov. 28 ready to act, carefully but timely. There is no mystery here. The faces behind the numbers are right in front of us. We cannot turn around. We are forced to give Washingtonians less than what they need.

“So let us write and pass a budget when the Legislature returns in January. Let’s turn our attention in a focused way on putting Washington state back to work. Some of you asked me whether I am hopeful. Let there be no doubt in any mind of any citizen of the state of Washington — I am hopeful.

“Let me tell you what I see. I see world-class companies like the Boeing Company hiring skilled labor. I see life sciences I see high-tech. I see our farm sectors are thriving. I see international trade growing dramatically. Our ports are an evidence of that. I am hopeful because yesterday the Europeans put together a plan to solve their debt crisis.

“We need to restore consumer confidence in our state so that people spend. We need to restore business confidence so they will hire. We need Congress to restore that confidence in this country, to reach an agreement on spending, taxation and ways to get our people back to work in the state. We are poised. We are ready. We are ready to recover. If we get those two things from Europe and from our own Congress we are on our way.

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