In a plan that has little chance of passing in the Democrat controlled House, the GOP also suggests ending three tax breaks – an interest exemption for large, out-of-state mortgage lenders, a sales-tax refund for renewable energy sales and a business-occupations tax break for out-of-state firms described as “shell corporations.” These could raise $36 million.
Rep. Gary Alexander said he offered the plan as an alternative to what House Democrats are expected to announce next Tuesday – and to show that a balanced budget does not need a sales tax hike to “buy back” cuts to schools and programs for the vulnerable, which Gov. Chris Gregoire has proposed to the tune of $490 million a year.
“It is a budget that is based on priorities,’’ Alexander said, singling out K-12 schools, vulnerable people and public safety as the top three areas that his budget invests money. “No sales tax increase is in our budget. We don’t see any need to buy back critical services, because we don’t make reductions in those critical services.’’
House Ways and Means chairman Ross Hunter, D-Medina, plans to roll out the majority-party’s budget plan likely on Tuesday, and it is expected to cut less and spend more. It is not clear whether he will follow Gov. Chris Gregoire’s proposal to delay by one day, but not cut, $340 million in payments to local K-12 school districts.
"I appreciate Rep. Alexander sharing his budget with me last evening. A lot of work goes into to producing a budget, and I know he took the process very seriously,” Hunter said in a statement that avoided giving specifics. “However, the hardest part of any budget isn't writing one that balances; it's writing one that the majority of legislators in the House and Senate can agree on. I don't think this proposal meets that challenge, frankly.”
It was not clear if Hunter would offer a revenue package to “buy back” a portion of the cut programs.
Gregoire had asked for a spring ballot proposal in the form of a temporary, half-cent sales tax. But that idea may be losing steam after caseloads for welfare and medical services recently fell, saving an estimated $330 million through June 2013.
In some ways, Alexander’s budget is a significant shift in philosophy - from trimming most every state-funded program to eliminating whole programs, according to Rep. Bruce Dammeier, R-Puyallup.
Alexander does want to cut agency budgets by 5 percent to 10 percent, while assuming agencies will have another $160 million left over – as surplus to give back – at the end of the budget cycle in June 2013.
But the GOP also wants to kill off 51 different programs – including the Basic Health Plan, a low-income property tax deferral program, a state drug task force, homeless assistance, an IT Academy, the Readiness to Learn program, a State Food Assistance Program, growth management administration and many others.
BHP is a politically popular health-insurance plan that gives subsidized coverage to more than 30,000 low-income workers. Alexander saves another $103 million by killing off the Disability Lifeline for people temporarily disabled and unemployed.
In another major policy shift, the House Republicans propose to cut welfare subsidies – reducing lifetime benefits from 60 months to 48 months, and reducing benefit amounts.
They also want state employees to take 24 furlough days in the next fiscal year – on top of 3 percent reductions in pay and hours already required by past budgets for the July 2011 to June 2013 period. This could save $91 million, Alexander said.
Furloughs might run afoul of labor contracts that already call for 3 percent reductions in pay and hours worked. The Washington Federation of State Employees did not offer immediate comment, but the largest state-employee union has argued previously against such furloughs and said the ongoing 3 percent cuts were bargained with an understanding that no more furloughs would be imposed.
Alexander said his proposal leaves $650 million in reserves – using this week’s rosier revenue forecast to add $50 million more than what Gregoire sought to set aside.
The GOP budget also completely pays for a levy subsidy to tax-poor school districts, which Gregoire proposed to cut by $152 million.
Go here for a comparison to Gregoire’s proposed supplemental budget for 2011-13; go here
for the House Republicans’ press release;
here and here for breakdowns of where the GOP does put money; here for Alexander’s presentation outline; here for a side-by-side comparision to Gov. Gregoire’s revised budget proposal from January and here for a previous story about the party’s so-called “education first” budget that preceded today’s announcements.
A shorter version of this story is in the works for Saturday print editions of the newspapers.
