WASHINGTON STATE

Washington State House Democrats

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

Rep. Mike Sells’ e-memo – Jan 13, 2011

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38th Legislative District · sells.mike@leg.wa.gov

 

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? Supplemental Budget

? Changes

 

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January 13, 2011

Message from Rep. Mike Sells

2011 Legislative Session Begins

First order of business: the supplemental budget

As you have undoubtedly heard, Washington continues to face a budget shortfall.  Although the “experts” have declared the Great Recession over, we’re still a long way from a full recovery.  Washington is a sales-tax dependent state and consumers are still nervous about buying and consumption.  At the same time, more Washington families, hit hard by the economy, are looking for help. 

We have two budget challenges to work out – the $1.6 billion shortfall in the current budget year ending June 30, and the $4.6 billion shortfall for the upcoming 2011-13 budget. Unlike the federal government, the state does not run a deficit, so our first task this year is to make additional cuts in spending.  We held a one-day special session in December that cut $588 million from the current budget, but we still have a lot of work to do.

Governor Gregoire sent her supplemental budget proposal  to the legislature last month. The supplemental budget is how we’ll balance the budget for the current year. Her budget proposal includes eliminating our state’s Basic Health Plan for 66,000 low-income workers, funding to co-payments.

This past Monday and Tuesday, the House Ways and Means committee heard testimony from dozens of members of the public regarding the impact of that proposal. Over the next several days, legislators will craft their own budget proposals. As early as next week, I will be voting on a bill that makes at least a large portion of the cuts she recommended. If you have specific suggestions for dealing with budget cuts or revenue, please send them along.

But clearly, difficult decisions are going to be made.  At the same time, we need to decide what kind of state we want Washington to be as we emerge from this lingering recession and be sure the decisions we make do the least damage to our economic competitiveness, the education of our people, and our values as a society that cares about our neighbors and those less fortunate than us.

Changes

This year, I have been asked to Chair the House Labor & Workforce Development Committee. The committee will be dealing with tough unemployment compensation, injured worker compensation and workforce training issues. My other committee assignments are Higher Education and Education Appropriations—both of which will be dealing with the devastating effects of proposed budget cuts to our K-12 and Higher Education systems.