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House budget proposal cuts $4.4B in state spending

Brad Shannon | The Olympian • Published April 04, 2011 Modified April 04, 2011

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State Rep. Ross Hunter and fellow Democrats laid out their draft operating budget today, slashing education and health care funding to bridge a $5.3 billion shortfall over 27 months without new taxes.

Find links to the document here.

We'll have more details later. The capital-projects budget also is due at 1 p.m. at the same legislative web site.

As outlined in a briefing sheet from House Democrats, the budget includs $4.4 billion in cuts or spending reductions. It preserves funding for the Apple Health children's insurance program and for levy aid to tax-poor public school districts, and it makes cuts but does not eliminate the state's Basic Health Plan for the working poor.

But it assumes a $482 million cut in funding for higher education (before tuition increases are added) and $362 million in savings by passage of a bill to end automatic cost-of-living pension increases for Plan 1 participants. It also assumes $177 million in general fund savings from pay cuts the governor sought from state employees.

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