By: Sen. Joe McDermottToday is the 104th day of the 105 day Legislative Session and it is the 13th consecutive day that the Senate has been in Session. Late yesterday the House passed the Operating Budget and this morning the Senate Ways & Means Committee, of which I am a member, gave the $31.4 billion two-year budget a “Do Pass” recommendation and referred it to the full Senate. Later this evening we will debate and pass the 2009-2011 operating budget. The budget relies on about $3 billion in federal stimulus money, $1.5 billion in various reserves, fund transfers, and savings, and, painfully, $4.3 billion in cuts and reductions.
We cut every area of government: both K-12 and higher education, health care, human services, corrections, and natural resources. No state employee or public school teacher will receive annual cost of living allowances (CoLAs). Some will have unpaid furloughs. As difficult as these cuts are, the budget is responsible given the roughly $9 billion deficit we had on the table when Session began on January 12.
I support new revenue to minimize some of the cuts, such as removing 40,000 low income working people from the Basic Health Plan (the front page story on the Seattle Times this morning) and severe reductions to Initiative 728, the class size reduction initiative, and have sponsored an income tax on individuals earning over half a million dollars a year and other proposals. Because of Initiative 960 the people passed in November 2007, any proposal for new revenue would have to be approved by a public vote. Unfortunately, no proposals have gained enough support from legislators, so later this evening it will be an all cuts budget we pass.
So today has been another long day taking difficult votes to implement this budget, such as allowing colleges to raise tuition by up to 14% instead of the previous limit of 7% and severely dropping Initiative 728 funding. We are about to debate the budget, then take up yet more bills on what will be a late second-to-the-last night of Session. Stay tuned