House majority rolls out bill to cut $640 million

Several programs would escape the ax

BY ADAM WILSON | THE OLYMPIAN • Published January 27, 2009

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Majority Democrats in the House rolled out their own plan to get the state through June, trimming $640 million in spending, but sparing some services from elimination.

Notably, the plan would continue paying for daylong care of disabled adults, a program Gov. Chris Gregoire has proposed ending as early as May. The House Democrats would also offer subsidized health care to children in families making up to three times of the poverty level, or $64,000 a year for families of four.

“We made a pledge to the children of our state, and this is not the time to go back on our promise,” said Rep. Kelli Linville, the Bellingham Democrat who leads the budget committee.

The Democrats said their “Early Action Savings” bill was not a final budget, but a start on needed cuts. It maintains freezes on travel and hiring for state employees, while cutting payments to health care providers, including hospitals and nursing homes.

The 322-page bill joins the debate over a recession-racked budget with Gregoire’s December proposal and a $105 million “Belt-Tightening Bill” Senate Democrats introduced last week. The Senate bill would make many of the same changes as the House plan, but focuses on controlling state costs, including clamping down on exemptions to the hiring freeze.

Income from taxes has fallen below already-gloomy expectations. Gregoire planned on a 15 percent, or $5.7 billion, shortfall in the two-year budget that starts July 1; legislators have said it could be as large as $7 billion.

No ‘cash problem’

“We don’t have a cash problem in the state treasury, the bank is sound, that’s all fine,” said Wolfgang Optiz, the assistant state treasurer. “However, the Legislature and the governor and the folks writing budgets … there’s a hell of a lot of urgency there.”

Washington isn’t in immediate danger of running out of cash to pay its bills the way California did last year, Optiz explained. “I don’t think we’re going to have that problem by the end of the fiscal year, but we’re in uncharted fiscal waters.”

Rep. Gary Alexander, the lead Republican on the House budget committee, said the new Democratic plan doesn’t move fast enough. He noted that it does not address the General Assistance Unemployable program — cash payments and health care to mostly single adults that Gregoire suggested ending in the next budget.

“My point is, we’re going to have to go further and deeper, so why not go toward those areas that are coming,” he said.

Up Next A public hearing on the Democrats' proposal, House Bill 1640 is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. today, January 27, in House Hearing Room A in the John L. O'Brien Building on the Capitol Campus.