Gregoire cuts foster care, MRSA monitoring boosts

Gov. Chris Gregoire just signed the supplemental budget, carving out an additional $15 million in vetoes.

As astute lobbyist Laura Lippold feared yesterday, foster care improvements were trimmed back significantly. I haven’t had time to go through each section, but it looks like Gregoire vetoed seven sections dealing with foster care and juvenile rehab (this will not do much to reassure those who think Gregoire just doesn’t like the Braam settlement).

Looks like the additional funding to track that infamous bug, antibiotic-resistant staph, was also dropped. Along with the funding for a study of state employee childcare needsin the county, oh, and additional funding to test the levels of lead in kids’ blood. (The lead bill didn't pass, and so to, shall the money not pass.)

I'll post a link to the veto messages when I see it.