Special session ruled out: Gregoire faces across-the-board cuts

Special session ruled out: Gregoire faces across-the-board cuts

BRAD SHANNON; Staff writer | • Published August 03, 2010


The U.S. Senate again delayed a key vote on giving $25 billion more medical- and school-funding aid to the states Monday. Meanwhile, Democratic leaders in Washington state ruled out holding a special legislative session to fix budget holes related to the lack of federal aid.

Gov. Chris Gregoire had set a noon Monday deadline for Democratic leaders in the state House and Senate to say whether they could bring their caucuses to town for a short special session. Without the federal help that the U.S. Senate might give, she fears a $300 million deficit that requires immediate cutting of spending.

Even so, her spokeswoman Karina Shagren said Gregoire hasn’t announced a decision on how to bridge the looming budget gap.

“We’ll see what Wednesday brings,” Shagren said. “The governor is working with other governors to see that a vote gets taken Wednesday and it gets pushed through.’’

The alternative to a special session is having Gregoire, a Democrat, order cuts of up to 4 percent that fall across the board – nicking prisons, health care, higher education and other programs equally.

The Republican minority in the statehouse says across-the-board cuts are a terrible way to cut the budget, but majority Democrats say it is quicker and politically easier than bringing lawmakers to town in an election season when agreements are harder to reach.

“My personal view is we should continue to do the across-the-board cuts – cuts that could only last from now until we go back into session in January,” House Ways and Means chairwoman Kelli Linville, D-Bellingham, said Monday by telephone. “I think going into special session, there is no guarantee there will be any agreements.”

“We believe that the governor should first take across-the-board cuts and not call a special session. To methodically go through and do selective cuts would require time. And somehow in the middle of the campaign session I’m not sure that’s the best reason,’’ added state Sen. Ed Murray, the Senate Democratic Caucus chairman from Seattle. “I think it would be a completely politicized situation” in a special session.

Indeed, House and Senate Democrats run the risk of aiming for a special session of a few days, then watching their caucuses blow apart in disagreements that drag out for the full 30 days that the state constitution allows for a special session. That’s pretty much what happened in April after majority Democrats failed to complete a revenue package and budget during their 60-day regular session. Hopes for a quick deal disappeared as lawmakers battled for 30 days to find agreement, and aides to Gov. Gregoire say she doesn’t want to see that again.

But Republicans say across-the-board cuts hit worthy programs just as hard as those that can afford reductions – with Sens. Mike Hewitt and Joe Zarelli saying in a letter to Gregoire last week that cuts would hit the developmentally disabled, for instance, at the same rate as they hit tourism programs.

“The lawmakers who have led us into this deficit should have the guts to step up and solve it, not pass off their responsibility to someone else,” House Republican Leader Richard DeBolt of Chehalis said in a statement he released Thursday after talking with Gregoire and other legislative leaders. “Budget writers should develop a plan for balancing the budget and then hold a one-day special session to put us on a course of responsible and sustainable state spending.”

Republican Rep. Gary Alexander of Thurston County said he’s willing to lay out some specific ideas for cuts – including dropping the eligibility limit for the Basic Health Plan, perhaps reducing the so-called Disability Lifeline help, and considering cuts to such programs as all-day kindergarten and coaching for math. Alexander said he also would consider allowing state payments to family members that care for their ailing relatives instead of paying extra to home-health workers.

“It’s not correct to assume Republicans are going to vote no on anything they come up with. I know Sen. Zarelli and I have said if we can participate in the process, then it’s very likely we’ll be looking for some support” for budget-cutting legislation, Alexander said. “I know the Democrats aren’t going to like some of the suggestions we put on the table.’’

The budget dispute would be averted if Congress acts. The U.S. Senate is considering an extension of federal medical assistance funding for the states that totals about $16.1 billion, or two-thirds what an earlier bill would have provided, and another $10 billion in aid for schools to avert teacher layoffs.

The Senate action, which was delayed to Wednesday from Monday, would in effect rescue roughly 30 other states – which, like Washington, counted on the aid in their budgets – from having to make new cuts.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said she has met national Republicans’ objections about the extra spending by offering an amendment that pays for it using unspent money already allocated to the federal government. But Sen. Mitch McConnell, the U.S. Senate minority leader from Kentucky, complained in a floor speech Monday that the spending on teachers would create “a permanent need for future state bailouts.”

McConnell called the aid a “brazen attempt” to push more money to public employee unions and set up massive tax hikes at the end of the year.

Even if the Senate approves H.R. 1586, which previously passed the U.S. House, it goes back to the other chamber for final approval.

Under the proposal, Washington state receives about $528 million including about $320 million in medical aid and $208 million in school aid, according to Murray spokesman Matt McAlvanah. He said the school aid could spare up to 3,000 jobs in public schools.

Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/2010/08/03/1323850/no-quick-fix-for-state-budget.html#ixzz0vYpFWOQ7