Locke Orders State Agencies To Trim Requests 5% Governor Hopes To Increase Spending On Education
Gov. Gary Locke, hoping to write a balanced budget that plows more money into education, on Tuesday ordered state agencies to scout out ways to trim 5 percent from their proposed spending plans.
The hurry-up, one-week exercise could free $400 million to help pay for public schools and colleges and to live within the constraints of spending-limit Initiative 601.
Democrat Locke, beginning his first full week in office after a quick visit to Washington, D.C., for President Clinton’s inauguration, is moving to put his stamp on the budget - and to create some distance from his liberal predecessor, Mike Lowry.
Before he left office this month, Lowry proposed a two-year spending plan of over $19.5 billion, up from the $17.6 billion current level and about $500 million more than Republican majorities in the Legislature contemplate spending.
Locke apparently plans to propose a $19.3 billion budget - his new calculation of what I-601 permits. Republican budget leaders disagree with his figures, which include provisions for using state tax dollars to cover some of the $600 million in expected federal budget cuts. The GOP is still using a target figure of $19 billion.
Locke will submit his revisions to the Lowry budget in about a month, said the governor’s spokeswoman, Carolyn Duncan.
The governor’s new budget director, Dick Thompson, sent all state agencies, including colleges, a memo with a oneweek deadline for identifying ways to trim 5 percent from their Lowry budget level.
Basic aid to education, protected by the courts from cutbacks, will be exempt, as will higher education instructional costs and student financial aid. That’s more than half of the budget.
Locke listed two key goals: bringing state spending under the I-601 spending cap, and freeing up dollars for education, children’s programs and a crackdown on juvenile criminals. He did not mention another potential beneficiary: salary increases for state employees, teachers and professors.
Without cutting from existing budget proposals, he and lawmakers would have only $59 million to add to education budgets or other spending areas, according to Thompson’s calculation.
“This exercise is designed to provide us with some flexibility to address the needs of public education and other key priorities within the limits set by Initiative 601,” the governor said.
Locke said he plans to live within the I-601 law, “unlike Lowry.”
“I think we can write a responsible budget that provides adequate funding for public education and other priorities within the existing limits,” he said. “I do, however, plan to work with legislative leaders to ensure that we can meet the state’s responsibilities in these areas in future years.”
He did not elaborate.
Thompson told Locke’s newly appointed cabinet directors they need to zero in on “more efficient and creative ways of doing business, as well as the elimination of lower priority state programs.”
Locke’s order drew applause from Senate Ways and Means Chairman James West, R-Spokane.
“I think it’s a good move,” he said in an interview. “Usually this is a drill we have well into a budget cycle and there is a big panic when agencies are told to change direction.
“It is a zero-sum game this year. If you want to do something new, you need to stop doing something old. It’s that simple.”
West, who will produce the Legislature’s first budget draft in mid-to-late March, said it will be an early test of Locke’s administrative ability whether his agencies produce useful suggestions for cutbacks or just-for-show proposals that no one could support, like closing the parks.
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