Consider Gov. Gregoire's press conference yesterday the kickoff for the official annual budget contest (it just doesn't seem appropriate to call something this consequential a "game"). As Austin Jenkins writes in the Washington Ledge, the conference had an air of deja vu.
Throughout the recession, we've witnessed many such announcements, with many of the same expressions of frustration. Just last December, Gregoire unveiled a budget plan that included $4 billion in reductions, saying "I hate my budget." Don't mistake this, though for the boy crying wolf. Each round of cuts narrows the options and increases the risks.
Her Budget Reduction Alternatives document makes for grim reading. Also at the link is her letter to lawmakers stating the need for at least $2 billion in spending cuts and suggesting that the November forecast will likely include more bad news. Among the cuts she thinks will be in her proposed supplemental budget:
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- Eliminate the Basic Health Plan, ending subsidized health care to 35,000 low-income individuals.
- Cut off medical services to 21,000 people enrolled in the state’s Disability Lifeline and ADATSA (Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Treatment Support Act) programs.
- Trim 15 percent from the support we provide to our colleges and universities.
- Reduce levy equalization, which helps property poor districts, by 50 percent.
- Cut the length of supervision for all offenders, based on severity of offense. Sex offenders will be supervised for 24 months, and all other offenders, for 12 months.
Although yesterday's news conference focused on takeaways, the governor said she'd also consider tax increases. Speculation that the all-cuts release was a strategy to soften up taxpayers and lawmakers for a revenue hike seems misplaced. The governor has a responsibility to produce a budget within available revenues. She did that. Clearly, she's not happy with it and this year appears more willing to entertain new taxes. Any revenue boost, however, will require voter approval. And most voters are in the same or worse shape as they were last year when they overwhelmingly endorsed I-1053 requiring a supermajority or voter approval for new taxes.
More later.
Plenty of initial response and news coverage:
AWB: Gregoire lays out $2 billion in possible cuts, kicking off difficult budget debate
Washington State Budget and Policy Center: Is this the kind of state we want?
Washington Policy Center: Governor provides lawmakers with budget recommendations
Senate Democrats: Majority Leader Brown and Sen. Murray on governor's alternatives
Senate Republicans: Zarelli gives governor credit for sharing budget options early
House Republicans: House Republican leaders issue statements on governor's budget ideas
House Democrats: Governor announces "dreadful" budget options
WFSE: All cuts budget options announced; urge legislators to cut tax breaks and raise revenue
Stories in the Seattle Times, The News Tribune, Columbian, Washington State Wire, Everett Herald, Yakima Herald-Republic, and Olympian.
Washington Research Council 