The governor made her comments Wednesday during a telephone news conference with three fellow Democratic governors and economist Mark Zandi of Moody’s Economy.com.
Two of the governors – Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania and Mark Parkinson of Kansas – said public-sector layoffs harmful to the nation’s economic recovery are likely if the states don’t get the $24 billion in aid. Rendell estimated that 20,000 jobs were at stake in his state, and Parkinson estimated 4,000 teacher jobs were at risk in his.
Gov. Jim Doyle of Wisconsin said losing the expected funds – which states such as Washington already put into their budgets – could mean cuts to nursing home financing in his state. He said this would cut care and reduce jobs in his state’s private sector.
Gregoire said she expects a key procedural vote in the Senate as soon as June 15 on the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act, but the governors were far from sure when or if the money will come.
“I’m optimistic. But until it’s done and the president signs it, we’ll all be a little nervous,” Rendell told reporters in the call, which was organized by the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute and did not include any Republicans.
Congressional Republicans have pushed back against the additional spending, which could add to the deficit and debt. In Washington, Republican candidate Dino Rossi, who is challenging Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, said this week he opposes the additional aid if it is not paid for. Rossi said states must start living within their means and questioned the need to lay off more than 6,000 workers.
“We can’t keep putting off tough decisions in favor of running up the nation’s credit card. Last year’s so-called stimulus cost over $1 trillion and amounted to little more than a bailout for state and local governments living beyond their means,” Rossi said in a statement. “Adding 6,000 more job seekers to an already difficult job market is not a solution.”
Rendell said Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California gave the funding request a push last week with a letter in support, and other Republican governors have made helpful recent statements in favor of the funding.
Zandi said that adding to the nation’s debt should not be a barrier to providing the funding. He said there is risk to the economy if thousands of public employees are put out of work at a time the jobless rate nationally is near 10 percent and the under-employment rate is closer to 17 percent.
Rendell said he favors having Congress pay off debt created by the aid after the economy recovers. But neither he nor the others outlined how that should be done.
Gregoire said Washington has already eliminated close to 5,000 government jobs – a figure higher than the 3,000 state and university jobs her budget office estimated earlier this week. She said Washington could need to cut 6,400 more without the federal aid, which she said U.S. Sens. Murray and Maria Cantwell are working hard to secure.
Several Democrats in the state House, including Ways and Means chair Kelli Linville, D-Bellingham, met Tuesday in Olympia and discussed the ramifications of not getting the federal money. Linville could not be reached immediately to comment, but Rep. Sam Hunt, an Olympia Democrat, attended the meeting.
Hunt said the meeting was originally called to deal with other subjects, but “you’ve got to talk about the gorilla that’s in the room.” He also said the discussion did not get into specifics of where or how cuts might be made.
Gregoire’s office has said that without the aid, a special session will be needed after September to look for ways to cut spending. Waiting until January would double the number of job cuts needed, according to Gregoire.
Brad Shannon: 360-357-1688 bshannon@theolympian.com www.theolympian.com/politicsblog
