The Senate just took up House Bill 2058, which makes about $480 million in fund transfers and cuts.

To kick off debate, Sen. Ed Murray said the state’s unemployment rate has just dropped to 8.7 percent, as reported by the Associated Press. “It’s not low enough, but it’s definitely movement,” he said. Murray said the budget is responsible because lawmakers took time to hear from people around the state. “We are making a significant down payment on the crisis we face,” he said, and it will allow lawmakers to move more quickly during regular session to work on a budget and a jobs package.

 ”I’m happy we’re getting something done,” said Sen. Joe Zarelli. “We’re making a good start on what is a huge problem … I just want to encourage all the members here today,” to vote for the bill, he said. He agreed with Murray that this early action gives the Legislature a jump start on regular session business.

Sen. Jim Hargrove thanked the budget writers, but said it’s too soon to start looking at revenue. He said there’s more work to be done on waste, fraud and abuse. He said over the next few weeks, he and others will be working on finding efficiencies where more cuts can be made.

The bill passed 42 to 6. It has already passed in the House.

Tags: Budget, cuts, Senate, special session

The House is now on the floor, taking up HB 2058, the $480 million in cuts and fund transfers negotiated over special session. You can watch live on TVW.

Rep. Charles Ross brought up an amendment (that had previously failed in committee) to cut funding to Commute Trip Reduction (also here). The program provides incentives for state employees who carpool to work.

Rep. Ross Hunter said he urged members to vote against the amendment because it was not part of cuts negotiated with the Senate.

But Republican lawmakers argued that the program is unnecessary, especially as the state considers cutting social service programs.

That amendment — the only one — failed. Now, onto debate over the main bill.

“This has been the beginning of our budget process and I think we’re far from the end,” said Rep. Ross Hunter, chairman of the budget writing committee. He called the $480 million in cuts and transfers an “initial, partial down payment” on the state’s $1.4 billion budget problem.

“Yes, a very partial down payment,” said Rep. Gary Alexander, the lead Republican on the Ways and Means committee. “We have a lot left ahead of us,” he said, but urged Republican support. “Hopefully when we come back in January, we can take a quick step forward.”

Rep. Brad Klippert said he intended to vote for the bill, but can’t support so many of the fund transfers, which he says punish fiscally responsible agencies that have built up reserves, only to see their reserves clawed back by the legislature.

“This legislature is not doing this job. Now, I’m going to vote for this thing because it advances us a little bit,” said Rep. Ed Orcutt. But, he said, “in no way” is this what the citizens of Washington deserve.

Rep. Bill Hinkle said he supports the bill, but “either way, people are going to be mad at all of us, by the way,” he said, because lawmakers will return home without sewing up the entire budget problem.

The bill passed 86 to 8 and now heads to the Senate.

Tags: Budget, cuts

The House Ways and Means committee is getting ready to vote on the bill to make about $480 million in fund transfers and spending reductions.

Before the vote, Rep. Gary Alexander said he was disappointed that lawmakers weren’t doing more. He said the $1.4 billion problem needs to be addressed — and that lawmakers are missing some critical chances to make cuts now.

Rep. Ross Hunter, chairman of the committee, said it has been a difficult process, even for Gov. Chris Gregoire, who only had to worry about one vote — her own — for her proposal.

The bill passed out of committee 24-1 and the House could vote on it as early as this evening. Stay tuned.

Tags: Budget, cuts, House, special session

The Senate Ways and Means committee held a brief hearing on its version of cuts and transfers and has now moved on to public testimony on the Involuntary Treatment Act. The House budget writing committee is now hearing about the Federal Main Street Fairness Act — if Congress passes the bill, it could bring $400 million in additional sales tax to the state.

You can watch both hearings live on our website. Currently, the Senate budget writing committee is live on TVW.

Update: The cuts bill is now up in the House, and the unclaimed property bill is up in the Senate. Click through to the jump to read about the testimony in the House. (more…)

Tags: Budget, cuts

As promised by Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown last week, the legislature has released a list of cuts and fund transfers to consider during special session. The grand total? $479 million. The House and Senate drafts should be available online soon. I’ll be sifting through the cuts and transfers and posting more. In the meantime, here’s Brad Shannon and Jordan Schrader’s story.

TVW will cover both the House and Senate Ways and Means committees today at 3:30 p.m. You can watch them on the web right here.

Tags: Budget, cuts, revenue, special session

Gov. Chris Gregoire’s budget is up for hearing in the House Ways and Means Committee. Rep. Ross Hunter said there are about 160 people signed up to testify — each will get 2 minutes to give their perspective on the cuts proposed last week. I’ll be updating this post with some of the testimony, so stay tuned.

First up, Ingrid McDonald with the AARP. “More than 1,000 people in our state will lose their home care,” she said. “The only solution is revenue. We commend the governor,” for coming up with the half cent sales tax plan to save some services from further cuts, she said.

Lynn Treat said she and her husband are both disabled and have lost their jobs — and with those, their insurance. “We may not be able to afford long-term care or any of the aging services,” she said. “We should be looking at maximizing revenues,” she said, even through a “marginal” sales tax increase like the governor has proposed.

Jen Estroff with Childrens Alliance asked legislators to raise revenue. “Do whatever it takes,” she said. “This is a moment of choice, not just for our state’s budget but for our children’s future,” she said.

Update at 8 p.m.: The Ways and Means Committee continues — you can watch live on TVW. And The Associated Press is reporting that hundreds of protesters are camped out in the capitol building, where the state police have locked the doors to prevent more people from coming in.

Tags: Budget, cuts, taxes, ways and means

Gov. Chris Gregoire is unveiling her preferred cuts budget now. Watch live on TVW.

“Another $2 billion in the hole and citizens will get a lot less of what they expect,” she said. “This morning, it’s not about cold, hard numbers: This is very personal. We’re talking about real Washingtonians.” She said these cuts will hurt many in the state, including seniors who won’t be able to afford prescriptions, those just out of prison with nowhere to go — tempted back into crime, a community corrections officer who worries about the safety of neighborhoods, and the homeless mentally ill who won’t be able to get help, among others.

“The people of our state are not spending. Businesses are not hiring. We need to cut $2 billion more,” she said. “We’re done with what I call the Pac-Man budgeting approach,” she said, where the state has taken bite after bite of budgets. Now, it’s time for full program eliminations. She said these cuts, on top of the $10 billion in cuts over the past three sessions, will hurt.

Gregoire was asked repeatedly about new revenue. She said she hasn’t done the work on revenue ideas, but she has been asked by all four caucuses about the issue.

Gregoire’s office just sent out a list of some of the cuts:
-  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 the state provides to 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.

Tags: Budget, cuts, Gregoire

This week’s Q&A is with Sen. Ed Murray, the Seattle Democrat who chairs the Senate budget writing committee. Murray talked about the budget hearing earlier this week, where lawmakers got a sense of the cuts agencies are proposing. We also talked about taxes, same-sex marriage and more. Next week, I’ll speak with a Republican budget writer about the impending cuts.

Q: Earlier this week, you heard some of the plans from state agencies for cutting 10 percent of their budgets. What are some of the elements that stood out the most?
Murray: Well, we have reached the point of — the cuts we’ve already made are fairly severe. But now we’re moving to the point of eliminating some pretty basic services that people depend on because they’re ill, because they’re disabled or because they’re old. So there are no sort of halfway measures left. This leaves only draconian choices.

Q: Are there any potential cuts you heard about that were particularly troubling?
Murray: You worry about some of the decisions we would make around the mentally ill. There are so many that stand out it’s hard just to pick one.
We’re looking at basic health care coverage, those sorts of things, assistance to immigrants, things like language interpreters for medical procedures. That pretty much cuts off the ability to someone to treat or someone who needs treatment.
Q: There has been talk about taxes. After what you heard earlier this week, are you convinced of the need of a revenue package?
Murray: I personally think we need to put revenue on the ballot and give voters a choice, but I don’t know if the votes are there in the Senate.

Q: Is that something you’re working on — getting support lined up for a potential package?
Murray: It certainly will be. To some extent, unless you’re actually in session it’s difficult to work some of these issues.

Q: At the hearing this week, you heard about the proposals to cut 10 percent — and yet, for many agencies, those cuts still don’t get you to $2 billion. How do you characterize the magnitude of this problem?
Murray: You know, it’s hard. When you ask voters, Should we have the services that state government provides like school, college, hep for families who have someone in their family who is disabled? They support it. (more…)

Tags: Budget, cuts, Sen. Ed Murray, special session, taxes

Budget director Marty Brown is asking state agencies to submit more proposed cuts.

The state budget picture must not be looking good: Marty Brown at the Office of Financial Management has sent out a memo on behalf of Gov. Chris Gregoire asking all state agency directors to submit a proposal for 5 percent “first priority” cuts — and an additional 5 percent cut for a total of 10 percent.

The reason? Brown says in the memo that the “near-term economic outlook has weakened since June,” when the last Economic and Revenue forecast was issued. And he says there’s a “distinct possibility” that further revenue losses are on the way in the coming year.

And what will those cuts look like? The Washington Policy Center has the chart from OFM here.

The agencies were asked to assume a January start date for cuts that couldn’t be implemented immediately. And they were warned that, as OFM monitors the economic conditions, the target could be revised.

The next ERFC Economic Review is on Sept. 2 at 2:30 p.m. TVW will cover that, as usual. And we’ll be there two weeks later for the Sept. 15 Economic and Revenue Forecast – when we’ll find out if the forecast is indeed down. But that’s not all:  Before session, we’ve also got the November forecast to deal with.

Tags: Budget, cuts, economy, OFM

There’s been a lot of talk about needing to take quick action, and we’re starting to get an idea of exactly how quick budgets will start to move.

Marty Brown, the governor’s budget director, told the House Ways and Means Committee yesterday that Feb. 4 was a good deadline for a supplemental budget.

Today, Gov. Chris Gregoire said she’d like to see a bill regarding unemployment insurance by Feb. 8.

And in the Republican media availability after her speech, Rep. Gary Alexander said he’s been working with Rep. Ross Hunter on budget details and the plan is that the House would write the budget and hold a hearing mid-next week, with hopes to have it on the floor by next Friday.

Tags: Budget, cuts, supplemental