Gregoire calls for balanced approach and nonpartisanship; GOP skeptical
Saying that many of the cuts she proposed last month are “unwise and unjust”, Gov. Chris Gregoire proposed a combination of program cuts, tax increases and federal aid to close the state’s projected $2.6 billion budget shortfall.
Gregoire told a joint session of the Legislature they face “an incredibly challenging year” and called for swift and decisive action.
“We cannot just cut or just tax our way out of this immediate budget shortfall,” she said. “We must have a responsible, balanced approach of painful cuts and new revenue.”
Majority Democrats praised her for a compassionate approach to an unbalanced budget. Minority Republicans said her proposals so far are short on specifics and would wait to see whether the nonpartisan approach she espoused would actually come to pass.
“This possibly could be the worst year I’ve ever seen,” said State Rep. Larry Crouse, R-Spokane Valley, who has been in office since 1995. “I like the fact that she says she’s going to listen to everybody. But that generally doesn’t happen on the budget.”
Gregoire described the state as undergoing the worst economic collapse
in 80 years. 2009 saw 475,000 people sign up for unemployment benefits,
one in 13 residents receiving food assistance, 26,000 homes put into
foreclosure and 86,000 people go on the Basic Health Plan.
State revenue projections have been dropping ever since the Legislature
adjourned last spring. Although the revenue may level out by February,
the requests for unemployment benefits and welfare may continue to grow
for months, she said.
Gregoire said she wanted to close or reduce 10 state institutions,
including the Pine Lodge Correctional Facility in Medical Lake. She
wants to eliminate 78 boards and commissions, reduce or eliminate about
a third of the state’s 64 small agencies. The state currently has three
regional growth management boards, she wants to consolidate them into
one. It has five environmental appeals boards, she’d drop that to two.
She wants to create a “Clean Energy Business Development Program” to
attract environmental jobs, and streamline the state’s permit process.
The state should give a tax credit for every new employee a small
business hires.
Not far enough, legislative Republicans argued. The state should
require all permits be issued within 90 days, allow residents to buy
health insurance on their own the way they buy auto or homeowners
insurance, rather getting it through an employer, contract out some
jobs and get completely out of the liquor business, they said. And
don’t raise taxes at all.
In a later appearance before the Senate Ways and Means Committee,
Gregoire and Office of Financial Management Director Victor Moore put
some details on the budget. She listed some $779 million in spending
that she wants to put back into the “all-cuts” budget she proposed in
December. The state would still cut about $1 billion in spending, but
eliminating some programs will cost the state more in the long-term.
She said the state could collect an extra $105 million by rewriting
some tax laws. It can expect some money from the federal government as
a continuation of economic recovery programs and through health care
reform, but those amounts won’t be known for several weeks, she said.
Gregoire seemed to be under playing the call for tax increases, and may
be relying too heavily on federal spending, state Sen. Mark Schoesler,
R-Ritzville, said after her presentation to the committee. There’s a
gap of nearly $675 million between the programs she wants to add back
into the budget and the taxes she proposed raising.
“Every governor’s state of the state speech in memory is long on good things and short on specifics,” Schoesler said.
But the speech is merely an early step in the budget process that will
occupy much of the session, several legislators agreed. Both parties in
both houses will have budget proposals, although as Sen. Joe Zarelli,
the ranking Republican on the Ways and Means Committee noted, Democrats
have substantial majorities, “so at the end of the day, we’re
passengers on the Titanic.”