Article by Erik Smith. Published on Monday, April 12, 2010 EST.

Democratic Speedsters Move So Fast That $30.5 Billion Budget Bill is a Blur – and That May Not be a Good Thing

By Erik Smith

Staff writer/ Washington State Wire

OLYMPIA, April 12.—Democrats in the state Legislature were getting set Monday to pull off one of the most astounding feats in Washington state history – they announced an agreement on the $30.5 billion state budget at lunchtime and were planning to pass it sometime around dinner.

            Chalk it up to modern desktop-publishing techniques, quick computer communication and maybe just a wee lack of concern for public oversight and even proofreading. The Senate was expected to begin voting on the operating budget at a point while the pages are still warm from the photocopier. The House was expected to pass it shortly thereafter.

            It’s a massive bill – some 344 pages long – chock full of items that have been debated all session long, and some that haven’t. Lobbyists and interest groups were busy poring over the details that were posted on the Internet just after 11 a.m. Monday, and no one save the budget writers had managed to digest the whole enchilada by early afternoon.

            There’s a reason for the speed. Lawmakers face a deadline by Tuesday at midnight to wrap up their special 30-day overtime session. It wasn’t until the weekend that they reached agreement on the $794 million in tax increases they plan to impose this year. Until lawmakers shook hands on the tax deal, no budget was possible.

            But that means the budget is full of unknowns – aside from the major problem that even budget-writers acknowledge. The budget attempts to cover a $2.8 billion shortfall, and does it with a collection of tax increases, raids on dedicated accounts, and one-time federal monies. But it doesn’t address the fact that the state is still spending more money than it takes in. The best estimate from the state Office of Financial Management indicates that even with this year’s tax increases, the state can count on another $2.1 billion shortfall next year. That’s based on the budget the governor proposed in January  – OFM is still working on an estimate based on the budget announced Monday.

            Speed May Not be a Virtue

            In many respects the situation is a repeat of last year, when Democratic budget-writers announced their budget deal on a Friday morning, passed it 10 hours later in the House, and finished the business in the Senate the next. That at least gave them time to sleep on it. But Republicans and interest groups howled that no one had time to study the details – and in fact, there was at least one major mistake.

            No one caught the fact that state-employee health insurance programs operate on a calendar-year basis, rather than on the state fiscal year, which begins July 1. Lawmakers thought they were providing a 3 percent increase for health insurance programs, but because of the budgeting snafu, the actual increase was zero. It is one of the reasons state employees faced a dramatic increase in their health insurance premiums this year. And the snarl actually may have cost the state more money, because employees rushed to take advantage of their more generous 2009 benefits before Dec. 31 of last year.

            This year’s budget provides $64 million to help take care of last year’s insurance flub, but employees still face another round of dramatic premium increases next year.

            Budget-writing lawmakers said Monday they don’t think their haste chokes off public review of the budget. Things are different, they said, now that the world can view the Legislature’s work on the Internet.

            “There was a time when doing a budget in a very short time frame made it difficult for the public to know what was in there,” said House Ways and Means Chairwoman Kelli Linville, D-Bellingham. “But I think our budget process has changed.”

            Virtually every detail has been debated in public in some fashion, budget-writers said, and the information is easily accessible online. “You know it as well as I do,” Senate Ways and Means Chairwoman Margarita Prentice, D-Seattle, told reporters. “I can read it on my phone.”

            A Puzzle to Others

            Meanwhile, others are puzzling over the intricacies of the budget bill language. Take an item from the Department of Commerce budget, for example. It earmarks $6.4 million for “associate development organizations.” Jason Mercier of the Washington Policy Center wondered what that was for – and eventually traced the reference back to the 2007 budget, which states that associate development organizations are charged with marketing Washington to out-of-state businesses. It’s the sort of thing that might stand a little explaining before the Legislature votes on the bill, he maintains.

            In an email note, Mercier said:

            “Our lawmakers need a refresher course on the principle espoused by RCW 42.56.030: ‘The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies that serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may maintain control over the instruments that they have created.’

“Even if they don’t think they need time to read and understand the tax and spending policies buried in hundreds of pages of text, they should at least give the people they serve the courtesy of knowing these details before the bills are voted on.  

“It’s starting to look like the most important tool for following the Legislature isn’t a copy of the constitution but instead a pack of tarot cards.”

The Big Picture

            At this point it’s possible only to speak of the broad strokes:

The supplemental operating budget rewrites the two-year $30.9 spending plan for 2009-11 that lawmakers passed last year. It reduces spending to $30.5 billion.

To cover this year’s $2.8 billion shortfall, the budget:

n      Cuts projected spending by $755 million,

n      Counts on $618 million in one-time federal money,

n      Spends $229 million from the state “rainy day fund,”

n      And raids $690 million from dedicated accounts set up for other purposes within the state budget.

n      The tax increase covers the rest.

n      It leaves an ending fund balance of $400 million.

The Key Details:

            Basic Health. The budget maintains current state Basic Health Plan enrollment at 69,000. But it presumes that the state will be successful in obtaining a “waiver” from the federal government that will allow Medicaid funds to be spent on the insurance program for the working poor. If the state is unsuccessful, enrollment will be cut to 65,000.

            K-12 Education. The budget jiggers spending for K-12 education, cutting in some places, increasing spending in others. Overall there is a net increase in spending of $120 million. The state will spend an additional $252 million to cover growing student populations, and will provide $29 million of “levy equalization” money to rural and cash-poor school districts, while allowing wealthier school districts to ask voters for more money. Biggest items that were cut include $30 million to reduce class sizes in grades K-4 and $78 million for school programs mandated by Initiative 728 in the year 2000.

Corrections. Four state prisons and one juvenile rehabilitation center will either be closed or downsized.

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