Gov. Chris Gregoire signed three bills Monday that would provide about $49.4 million in early budget savings, but those savings are largely a mirage. They capture savings Gregoire already is extracting by other means, according to her budget director, Victor Moore.
The other major early-savings measure appears to be stalling – the highly controversial Senate furlough proposal to save $50 million or more by shutting down certain state agency functions for one day a month and temporarily laying off staffers once a month as soon as mid-summer.
Democratic Rep. Brendan Williams objects to the idea and has offered an amendment he hopes will poison further interest in furloughs.
His amendment requires state lawmakers to take cuts in their “per diem” expense allowances in amounts equal to the eventual loss of pay that legislative staffers face if they are forced to take 11 one-day furloughs.
Lawmakers’ expense allowances, known as per diem, are paid at a rate of $90 per day when lawmakers are in session in Olympia. That translates into $5,400 for the entire 60-day session.
Once envisioned as a way to save $92 million in general fund dollars, Senate Bill 6503 passed the Senate in a big rush a few weeks ago after Senate Democrats pared its savings to $69 million, exempting more agencies and government functions that deal with public safety, policing or revenue collections.
The bill then fell out of sight after a House budget committee pared the savings to about $50 million.
Even with those changes, the bill appears to be gaining new life, and that is happening over the objections of Olympia-area lawmakers including Williams and the Washington Federation of State Employees.
In fact, House Democratic leaders have said that they expected the measure to come up for their Democratic Caucus members to talk over every day since Thursday.
Gov. Gregoire said Monday that she is still open to a furloughs bill but has concerns that the bill needs to be written in a way that lets her managers actually run their agencies.
Williams has larger objections. He says the bill is unfair to state workers, especially in his 22nd Legislative District where job cuts and pay freezes have already hit workers hard.
The House Chief Clerk’s Office did not have an immediate estimate of the impact of Williams’ amendment Monday, but Williams said the amount of his proposal cuts could easily be $1,200 a year, if not much more.
Williams said he’s certain his amendment is responsible for stalling the furloughs bill. “It’s very bizarre,” Williams said. “That bill hasn’t come up since” he offered the amendment.
House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler has said the bill is not dead, and Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, insisted Monday that any delays are due to the crush of other legislation that must be acted on before today’s 5 p.m. deadline for policy bills to win approval in their house of origin.
He said the furloughs bill is needed for the budget so it is not subject to cutoff rules. Chopp was not familiar with Williams’ amendment.
In the Senate, Democratic budget-writer Rodney Tom of Medina said he thinks SB 6503 is not dead and will re-emerge later as part of the larger budget solution.
Republicans in the Senate including Sen. Joe Zarelli of Ridgefield have objected to the furloughs measure only because it doesn’t go further. Zarelli has pushed to reopen labor contracts with state workers in order to cut pay and help bridge more of the budget gap, which now measures an estimated $2.8 billion.
And in the House, Republican Leader Richard DeBolt and others have asked to see the furloughs in a larger context of other cuts – to get a better idea of what is appropriate.
Leaders with the Washington Federation of State Employees, which represents about 40,000 state workers, say they do not know what will happen with the issue.
