A small, single-engine plane is circling the state capitol, trailing a huge banner reading “NO HUSKY STADIUM BAILOUT TAX!”

(Click the read-more line for another photo.)

From tomorrow’s paper:

Washington’s two largest public universities painted a bleak picture Tuesday of looming budget cuts as the state grapples with a budget shortfall that lawmakers say could reach $8 billion.

State lawmakers won’t finalize the budget for another two months, but state colleges and agencies have all been asked to show how they would deal with deep budget cuts.

The proposed cuts would mean “600 to 800 jobs, it’s a 2-6 percent decline in enrollment…and it’s 1-2 quarters of added time to degree,” University of Washington President Mark Emmert told lawmakers.

In Pullman, Washington State University officials are “doing our best to minimize the number of warm bodies that will lose their jobs,” Provost Warwick Bayly said. “But it is inevitable that there will be some.”

(Note: I included a TVW video of Bayly’s entire testimony in this post. Click on the “continue reading” link below for more of this story and the embedded video.)

Under Gov. Gregoire’s budget proposal, WSU would face a 12 percent cut in state funding. Boosting tuition by 7 percent – the current maximum – for the next two years would reduce that to just under 7 percent.

With Washington’s revenues getting steadily worse, state lawmakers have asked both institutions to draw up plans for even higher cuts: 50 percent more than what Gregoire called for. Cutting that 18 percent would mean WSU would have to slash $93 million from its budget over the next two years.

Officials from both schools said they’re not ready to name specific programs or services that definitely would be axed. But they sketched out the broad picture. At WSU, Bayly said, such cuts would reach deep – 41 percent — into WSU’s research and public service operations.

“We are trying to protect instruction to the extent that we can,” he said. Public services includes things like agricultural and natural resource outreach programs, nutritional services and small business development centers.

“They are all on the table and would in all likelihood be impacted by the reduction here,” Bayly said.

Also targeted in the plan: student services and administration. Student services includes things like recruiting, the registrar’s office, tutors and admissions.

“Each and every one of those may suffer to some extent,” Bayly said.

Both Emmert and Bayly said they would like to hold tuition increases to 7 percent a year, although Emmert argued that tuition increases of even 14 percent would be preferable to the

Gov. Chris Gregoire’s two-year budget plan, released Thursday, suggests closing a $5.7 billion budget shortfall with deep cuts.

Here’s a look at some of the biggest cuts, local cuts, and some new local spending:

Education:

-do away with cost-of-living raises for teachers and other school staffers for the next two years: $349 million.

-eliminate a variety of school pilot programs, including the reading corps, civics curriculum, and math helping corps: $23 million.

-”suspend” about a quarter of the money for class-size reduction: $178 million.

Higher Education:

-across-the-board cuts of up to 13 percent at four-year colleges and 6 percent at community and technical colleges. The colleges can decide what to cut, although effects may include cutting faculty, cutting support staff and offering fewer classes. Savings: $342 million.

-doing away with faculty and staff cost-of-living raises at community and technical colleges: $33.4 million.

Human services:

-do away with the Adult Day Health program, which serves about 1,900 elderly and developmentally disabled people: $20 million.

-reduce nursing home reimbursement rates by 5 percent: $46 million.

-shrink mental health funding for Regional Support Networks: $31 million.

-toughen accountability for welfare recipients and push them into jobs quicker: $30 million.

Health care:

-stop buying vaccines for children not covered by Medicaid: $50 million.

-cut the state’s Basic Health Plan for the working poor by 42 percent and shrink the things it will cover.

-halt plans to let parents buy state-subsidized health coverage if they’re between 250 percent and 300 percent of poverty level. For a family of 4, that’s $53,000 to $63,600 per year. Savings: $6 million.

-eliminate General Assistance for the Unemployable, which provides health care and issues checks of up to $339 a month to thousands of people. Savings: $251 million.

-cut hospital reimbursement rates by 4 percent: $47 million.

Natural resources:

-close 7 fish hatcheries: $7 million.

-close 13 state parks, plus other parks during off-peak seasons: $5 million.

Law enforcement:

-shortening probation and eliminating probation supervision for misdemeanors and low-risk felonies: $69 million.

-shrinking drug and alcohol treatment: $11 million.