advertisement
The SunBreak

Recent Stories Remove Time Restriction in News Remove Category RSS Feed

Washington State's Budget Crisis is Worse Than You Think
By Michael van Baker Views (288) | Comments (3) | ( 0 votes)

Governor Gregoire

"I hate my budget," was the literal money quote from Governor Gregoire, who went on to add, "in some places, I don't even think it's moral."

For the non-budget wonks among us, it's hard to square cutting $4.6 billion out of the 2011-13 two-year budget, so that it still totals a staggering $32.4 billion, with the scorched earth that's being reported: per the Seattle Times, say goodbye to the State Arts Commission and Tourism Office, the Basic Health Plan (an additional 66,000 without health insurance), the Disability Lifeline, state parks funding, and programs for gifted children and juvenile offenders. Here's an itemized list.

(Last Friday, the governor went on to suggest $1.1 billion in cuts from this biennial budget, starting early axe-work on the Basic Health Plan and Disability Lifeline, plus the Children's Health Program, state food stamp assistance, and education funding that supports poorer schools and smaller class sizes.)

Washington Budget & Policy Center

So what are we spending $32.4 billion on, exactly? That's the question I asked the Washington State Budget & Policy Center's Remy Trupin the day the state announced a $5.7 billion deficit. You might be surprised to learn that the state's prime directive, as it were, is to fund education. Over half of the state's budget goes to schools ($13.6 billion in 2007-09), higher education ($2.2 billion), and job training ($1.4 billion). 

Because education is the state's top priority, that means that health and social services, environmental protection, and things like worker childcare assistance get cut first. But what sounds like a "reasonable" downsizing of the total budget, say six percent, is actually being repeatedly carved out of a much more limited area. Depending on how you slice it, you could be talking about cuts of 25 to 30 percent from budget sectors, and that's when whole programs suddenly go missing.... (more)

Permalink | Comments (3) | Posted 9 hours ago | more Politics