Brad Shannon:
The Politics Blog

Brad Shannon maintains this blog. He is political editor at The Olympian and can be reached at 360-753-1688 or bshannon@theolympian.com.

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Advocacy coalition forming around tax hikes

• Published December 09, 2009

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Human services advocates are forming a coalition with educators and labor to push for tax increases.

They’ll want to raise anywhere from the $700 million that Gov. Chris Gregoire suggested to as much as $2 billion, according to Adam Glickman, spokesman for the Service Employees International Union 775 NW that was at the heart of tax-package efforts in the last legislative session.

It remains to be seen which of Gregoire’s proposed cuts are real, and which are likely to be pulled off the table almost immediately in January when she puts out her second budget plan with accompanying revenue requests.

But SEIU, the Washington Education Association, and the state’s hospitals are gearing up for a hard lobbying effort, part of a group calling itself the Rebuilding Our Economic Future Coalition. The groups are looking at putting in money to support the effort, and groups such as the Eldercare Alliance and others are involved.

“We agree with the governor that the budget (released today) is unjust,” said federation spokesman Tim Welch.

The group made a show of force with a press conference at the Capitol today, saying they are worried that another round of budget cuts will do harm:

n Nora Gibson of Eldercare Northwest told of patients who died after their adult-day medical services were suspended a few months during the summer, before a judge’s restraining order put a halt to lawmakers cuts. n Jerry Reilly of the Eldercare Alliance said cuts that push more frail elderly people into more costly nursing care will be a disaster for the elderly but also cause more havoc longer term for the state budget. The state risks turning back the clock on a 15-year-old program of putting clients into community settings that, he said, was saving the state hundreds of millions of dollars. n Political consultant Sandeep Kaushik, who is a spokesman for the coalition, called the cuts, which total $850 million for human services alone, a “veritable tsunami of heartbreak for working families of Washington state. He said coalition partners belief the budget proposal is “unacceptable.’’ n David Flentge, chief executive for Community Health Care in Pierce County, said close to 100,000 residents statewide would lose health coverage from the various cuts, putting pressure on community clinics like his that depend on Basic Health or other paying customers. He predicted the cuts would push the number of uninsured in Washington to more than 1 million. n Delivery nurse Nancy Gladsjo of Swedish Hospital in Seattle warned that 50,000 at-risk mothers would lose nutrition services and childbirth education. n Janel Brown, a University of Washington junior, said the cuts are dire and that students on the Husky Promise scholarships “will have to find another promise.’’ Another student leader said cutting financial aid for more than 12,000 students put them at risk of not finishing college. n And Annette Stier, director of women and children’s services at Providence St. Peter Hospital warned that taking away health coverage could leave contagious diseases untreated in the community and push more people into emergency rooms. n Lonnie Johns-Brown, a lobbyist for early childhood education and sexual-assault prevention programs, said the cuts are “shocking” and mean that 20 percent of 3-year-olds won’t get a head start on education. She said other cuts to child care mean that some people trying to become independent will need to stop working and get welfare help.

I also talked to Laurie Meeker, president of the United Faculty of Evergreen group, said cuts to financial aid will harm access to institutions of higher education. She said her group wants the state to support “basic funding for education so we can maintain quality education.”

Criticisms of the budget also have been flowing into my email inbox, but I'll have to write on those at a later time. I have a deadline for the print edition coming up.

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