The actual text and details for the budget document, dubbed House Bill 2058, are due later this morning. The House Ways and Means Committee plans to hear it at 3:30 this afternoon.
The biggest dollar adjustments appear to be in the form of new revenues – including the formal counting of $82 million in unspent money from the previous biennium and another $50.6 million in new revenue from quicker conversions of unclaimed property by the Department of Revenue.
Yet another $38.4 million comes from additional federal welfare aid and $752,000 saved from limits on the replacement of electronic-benefits cards for clients.
And $22.6 million would come from a three-year delay in the law changing when people mental-health disorders are detained or committed involuntarily.
House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan, D-Covington, said last week the House committee is expected to vote on the budget agreement Tuesday, allowing floor action later in the week. Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown says the hope is both chambers can approve it this week, allowing adjournment until the regular 60-day session begins Jan. 9.
Gov. Chris Gregoire’s supplemental budget and revenue proposals already included the property reversion change. It is embodied in House Bill 2169, which also is scheduled for a hearing in House Ways and Means Committee at its 3:30 p.m. today.
Senate Ways and Means has a hearing at the same time today on companion bills - SB 5883 deals with budget-gap reductions, and SB 5994 deals with unclaimed securities.
Administrative cuts also are part of the early-action proposals.
A quick sampling of the smaller moves includes:
** $300,000 or a 7 percent reduction in funds given to TVW for public-affairs programming;
** $498,000 in reductions to the State Library and $203,000 from elections costs due to anticipated lower reimbursement requests from counties for 2011 elections.
** Eliminating several positions at the Special Commitment Center at McNeil Island;
** Reduced staffing for air-quality sampling by the Department of Ecology;
** Releasing 21 non-violent juvenile offenders on their earliest possible release dates.
UPDATE to original 11:15 a.m. post: The House summary is here
and the Senate’s is here.
Sullivan said HB 2058 will be heard this afternoon in Ways and Means, voted on at a 9 a.m. Tuesday committee meeting and on the floor of the House as soon as Tuesday evening. If the Senate moves as quickly, he said everything could be done as soon as Wednesday.
The Democrats’ architect of the budget plan in the House is Rep. Ross Hunter of Medina. Hunter said less than $200 million of the gap is closed by outright reductions in spending and that other reductions reflect savings from reforms the Legislature put into place previously.
Hunter said the package reflects those things everyone could agree on.
Rep. Gary Alexander, the House Republican’s top voice on budgets, said he wanted more reductions and has an amendment in the works to bring the package total to $500 million. Alexander said he and other GOP members are likely to vote for the package as a first step.
