By Sen. Darlene Fairley. I am sorry.  I try to be upbeat and positive in my communications with you, but not this time.  Many of you have been following the budget news and it is looking worse than we feared.   The newest estimates are that we face an $8.5 billion shortfall for the next two year budget, starting July 1.  It is truly difficult for me to comprehend the magnitude of $8.5 billion.

To give you an idea of what $8.5 billion in cuts is, we could close:  

• all prisons—let everyone out and fire all employees
• all colleges—that means all Community Colleges plus the four year (UW , Evergreen, Western, Central, Eastern and WSU).
• We could also cut:
• all care for seniors
• all care for folks with developmental disabilities or mental health issues

Say we do the above, it would cause a loss of thousands of jobs, and even with eliminating ALL these vital programs, we still would not have solved the problem.  

About half of our state’s budget goes towards mandatory programs, so we can’t just adopt a 25% across-the-board cut because:

• Basic K-12 education funding is protected by the state constitution
• Medical assistance – i.e. Medicaid – is protected by the federal government
• Debt service and corrections are expenditures that the state either cannot default on or must make for the safety of the population

How did we get here? 

In Washington, where there is no personal or corporate income tax, retail sales make up over half of state revenue in the operating budget. The loss of consumer confidence has led to a sharp decline in purchases, which directly impacts our state’s revenues. The state’s chief revenue forecaster says, “We are witnessing an unprecedented economic crisis, the likes of which arguably we have not seen since the Great Depression.”

Where do we go from here?

If cuts and efficiencies won’t close this $8.5 billion gap, what are we left with?  Due to Initiative 960, passed in 2007 by only 51% of the voting public, any tax increases have to go to the voters, most likely in November.  As much as I hate to say this, I think many would rather increase some taxes so we can maintain basic services.

What do you think?

I’m attaching a link to an interactive budget exercise put together by the Senate’s nonpartisan Ways & Means staff to help the public understand the enormity of our situation and to engage in the challenges of balancing the operating budget.  I encourage you to check it out at http://fiscal.wa.gov/BalanceTheStateBudget.xls

More information about the budget challenges is available online at http://www.sdc.wa.gov/issues/budget/01.htm

In all of this, I remain committed to advocating for the most vulnerable in our community.

Take care and let me know what’s on your mind.

Darlene