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Editorial: Cuts offered are deep, hair-raising for state

Tue., Nov. 1, 2011

Gov. Chris Gregoire got the jump on Halloween last week with a list of budget cuts that is truly scary.

There are no treats, just page after page of spending cuts that will hurt many of Washington’s most vulnerable residents, who could lose many vital services if legislators adopt the list she released in advance of this month’s special session. She has suggested $2 billion in cutbacks in response to recession-driven reductions in revenue from sales taxes, real estate excise taxes, etc.

She’s assuming the worst from a Nov. 17 update on state revenues, and why should she not? Quarter after quarter, the trend has been down. About $10 billion has been pared from the state budget over the past three years, and it has not been enough.

Gregoire lists a total $4 billion in savings, of which $2 billion are identified as her preferences.

For example, the state could save as much as $9.5 million by eliminating grants to community programs serving sexual assault victims. Her alternative: Cut the grants by just $3 million. These programs reach a shocking 85,000 women and children each year.

Changing eligibility for the Children’s Health Insurance Program could hit as many as 134,000, but save $145 million.

Or save $204.3 million by raising eligibility standards or eliminate in-home help with eating, toileting and other services to 25,000 developmentally disabled residents.

Maybe how ugly this partial list looks depends upon how close you are to any of these populations.

But you do not have to be a member of one of these classes to get hurt. The biggest chunk of state spending is dedicated to education and, from preschool to university, the bloodletting goes on and on.

For Spokane-area school districts, the most destructive aspect of the governor’s proposal is a halving of the $600 million in levy equalization funds that support revenues in mostly poorer areas. The cuts, which would take effect in calendar year 2013, would cost Spokane Public Schools $6.6 million per year, more than in all other districts in Washington except Federal Way and two in Clark County. Central Valley could lose $4.3 million, Mead would lose $3.4 million and East Valley $946,000.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn had a swift response to equalization reductions: “These cuts can’t happen.”

Dorn’s right.

Gregoire, who for the most part has attacked the budget shortfalls head-on, in effect shifts $330 million in payments into the next biennium by moving them forward one day, to July 1, 2013. That does not save anything, or fool anybody.

Higher education, which has become a budgetary stepchild, is targeted for another 15 percent – $166 million – whack. We don’t raise taxes in Washington, we raise tuition.

The governor also looks to state employees for at least $55 million from increased health plan contributions, retiree payments and pension adjustments. Her alternative proposals go much deeper. So far, union leaders are unmoved.

Gregoire has not asked for more revenues. Someone will. But until two-thirds of state representatives and senators buy in, all we have is the governor’s pumpkin.