The state budget: watching, waiting, and worrying…
From today's paper:
OLYMPIA – In Cheney, college administrators are going back into the classroom and teaching without extra pay.
At the Crosswalk teen homeless shelter in Spokane, staffers wonder if they’ll have to shut down for part of the year.
A few miles away, Jim Lippold worries about losing half the money for a program that gives frail elderly people a safe place to socialize, eat a meal and see a nurse.
“We can’t stop doing this,” said Lippold, who runs the elder program. “People are going to be very hurt, and I think literally will die.”
As budget writers in the Statehouse huddle behind closed doors, thousands of people across Eastern Washington – college students, single mothers, elderly people, workers and taxpayers – have a big stake in what they decide.
From the Palouse to the South Hill to the West Plains, people and groups that rely on state money are swapping rumors and worrying.