Browsed by
Tag: 2009 session

More red ink …

More red ink …

It shouldn’t be any great surprise, but state government caseloads are growing during this lingering awful recession –  and there a price to be paid, roughly $250 million.  That could well force a new round of budgetary belt-tightening in the 2010 legislative session.  The nonpartisan state Caseload Forecast Council has released new projections that show more demand for Medicaid and children’s heath coverage, the welfare program called General Assistance-Unemployable (GAU), and nursing home care. This follows a recent downgrade of the state revenue forecast…

Read More Read More

Taxes: The road not taken …

Taxes: The road not taken …

It’s a tale of two states. Washington’s legislative session almost seems like ancient, painful history by now.  The Democratic-controlled Legislature and Democratic governor dealt with a $9 billion budget gap by spending cuts, hiring freezes and furloughs, federal dollars and various light-bulb snatches – but no general taxes, not even a referendum for funding popular programs like kids’ health and higher education. Nearly every facet of state government was cut or restrained.  Cuts take effect tomorrow.  Lawmakers finished on time, within 105…

Read More Read More

‘Still reforming’: Governor signs election package

‘Still reforming’: Governor signs election package

Flanked by Secretary of State Sam Reed and many of Washington’s County Auditors, Governor Gregoire has signed election legislation that will save tax dollars, reduce the number of springtime election dates, and make voter registration even more convenient for qualified residents. Reed says the four bills signed by the governor on Friday reflect a goal by his Elections Division and the counties to continuously improve the elections process in Washington. “We are constantly on the lookout for better ways of doing business,” Reed said. “Our collective…

Read More Read More

WA budget: Dems tout ‘cuts w/ a conscience’

WA budget: Dems tout ‘cuts w/ a conscience’

On Day 103 of the 105-day legislative session in Oly, we’re finally seeing hard copy on a new $31.4 billion, two-year state budget. It’s the majority Democrats’ House-Senate compromise that closes a $9 billion budget gap without higher general taxes. Deets here . The session must adjourn by Sunday night, and lawmakers are racing to make that happen. The operating, construction and transportation budgets all must move through both houses, and there’s little time for scrutiny or debate.  The main operating…

Read More Read More

The long and short of it …

The long and short of it …

Gettin’ out of Dodge? Not so easy for lawmakers this year. The calendar says we’re about two weeks from the adjournment deadline (April 26) for the Washington Legislature’s grueling 15-week regular session. In recent years, lawmakers have prided themselves on their on-time adjournment. But we’ve begun to catch rumblings from discouraged legislators that their high-centered budget-and-tax talks just might force overtime — or even “rolling recesses” where rank-and-file lawmakers go home and leave negotiators behind to work out a House-Senate-Governor deal. The Senate…

Read More Read More

Taxes? Who the heck knows?

Taxes? Who the heck knows?

Legislative Democrats’ tussle over taxes continues, behind the scenes, as does their loathing for a no-new-revenue state budget. The House budget panel pumped out an all-cuts plan earlier this week and a somewhat different Senate’s version is still subterranean.  Legislative leaders, with no overt encouragement from GovGreg, are toying with tax ideas. Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, is leading the “conversation” for a flat rate income tax on folks with high-end income (say, $250k or $500k a year), but that ballot measure isn’t considered likely to…

Read More Read More

Budget crunch = rethinking prisons

Budget crunch = rethinking prisons

In recent decades, Washington has been the poster child for tough-on-crime legislation. Often spurred by crime-of-the-year legislation responding to a particularly heinous crime or a chronic problem like drunken driving, lawmakers have piled up tougher, longer sentences. The tougher-than-thou competition sometimes spilled over onto the campaign trail. But now the soaring Department of Corrections budget has collided with the state’s $9 billion budget problem, and lawmakers find themselves considering closing McNeil Island penitentiary and Green Hill reform school, revisiting sentences and cutting…

Read More Read More

That college diploma may cost you more …

That college diploma may cost you more …

As higher education poises for deep budget cuts in Olympia, Governor Gregoire and others are proposing stiff tuition hikes to help offset. Both houses are contemplating hundreds of millions in higher ed cuts,  estimating that 10,000 or more students might be turned away and thousands of faculty laid off. The House Ways and Means Committee produced its plan Tuesday as part of the House Democrats’ $31 billion two-year budget draft.    Big tuition hikes, accompanied by more student financial aid, are…

Read More Read More

Havin’ flashbacks: Been there, done that

Havin’ flashbacks: Been there, done that

As Washington lawmakers grapple with a deep recession and a budget gap approaching $9 billion, some Democrats are openly talking about something that has been the “third rail” of politics in this state — the income tax. Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown of Spokane, a PhD economist who has deeply studied the state’s tax structure, and Senate colleague Jeanne Kohl-Welles of Seattle are talking about a soak-the-rich tax something like President Obama has advocated. Brown and Kohl-Welles would tax the…

Read More Read More

Capitol kibbles

Capitol kibbles

Some FYI updates for you: –Hans Dunshee, the House construction budget guy, unveils a $3 billion ballot proposal for K-12 and college projects. He calls it a modern-day version of the Works Progress Administration that put many Americans back to work during the Great Depression, and says we could get 90k jobs in the next fews years.  State Treasurer James McIntire, Dunshee’s former House colleague, raises a red flag. He says the state can’t afford that much additional bond debt, and that…

Read More Read More