House Democratic Caucus unveils 2011-2013 plan, including $4.4 billion in cuts
OLYMPIA – One must play the hand that one is dealt, even when – if you’ll pardon a mixed metaphor – the deck is stacked against one by one’s legislative adversaries.
House Democrats yesterday afternoon (Monday, April 4, 2011) released a biennial-budget proposal that would slash $4.4 billion from state-spending. A top Democratic Caucus leader said the proposal “is the best we can do, considering how sternly we’re hamstrung by our Republican colleagues in endeavoring to fight through the worst of this Great Recession.
“Frankly, their inflexibility severely limits options in this hardest-times budget,” said state Rep. Jim Moeller.
House Speaker Pro Tempore Moeller and more than a few other lawmakers would at least like to entertain the idea of eliminating some tax exemptions. But a supermajority-vote requirement – a mathematical impossibility without some minority-Republican support – all but suffocates such talk of tax-exemption reform.
Moeller pointed out that the proposed $4.4-billion spending cut “would come on top of the $5.1 billion in spending cuts that the Legislature has already ordered in the past three years.
“Our Republican colleagues in the House are refusing to help us close tax loopholes as recommended by the bipartisan Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee,” Moeller said.
He noted that such tax exemptions “are fine for spurring economic growth in good times. Unfortunately, the times today are certainly not any good at all – to say the least. We need to take an honest look at eliminating some of these exemptions.”
Moeller said the Democratic budget does preserve at least a portion of a number of essential programs. These are programs “that would very likely go away in any Republican budget. We fund the Washington Basic Health Plan and the Disability Lifeline, for instance, which are two programs that help the working poor and the most vulnerable citizens amongst us. We also maintain levy-equalization for our school districts, as well as the Highly Capable Students Program that helps make sure our kids have a fair and realistic opportunity to earn a quality future for themselves.”
Among other essential items preserved in the budget for the 2011-2013 biennium proposed by House Democrats are:
* Apple Health for children.
* Passport to College for foster children.
* Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program.
* National Board certification for teachers.
* Family planning.
“Last year, for the first time since 1951 – and yes, that’s 60 years – our biennial budget was actually smaller than the previous two-year budget,” he continued. “This year, our per-capita spending is the lowest it’s been since 1986 – and yes, that’s a quarter of a century.”
Moeller said that also in the last two years “the Legislature has cut 3.9 percent of the state’s public workforce, which amounts to 8,200 full-time-equivalent employees – including 3,000 public-agency staff, 3,100 college and university employees, and 2,100 women and men who were working in our public-school districts.”
Leading up to this no-new-taxes, biennial-budget proposal, more than $730 million in cutting has already been carried out since the Legislature’s spring 2010 meeting. A one-day special session this past December ordered $490 million in reductions, and an early-action budget bill this past February directed $242 million in further slashing.
Moeller said that public employees have been ordered to take 10 furlough (no-pay) days, which is the equivalent of a 3.8-percent annual pay cut. A statewide salary freeze has been implemented, and state workers are also paying up to $1,250 a year more for their health plans.
General-fund revenues last year were actually $1 billion under what they were in the 2005 budget cycle. In fact, revenues available to fund public programs and services are down $18 billion over the past four years. It’s estimated that $37 billion would be needed to continue the state’s essential responsibilities through the July 1, 2011, through June 30, 2013, budget-cycle. However, the expected revenue for that time frame is $32 billion.