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Gregoire’s new budget math: Don't like a cut? Name something else to lop

• Published October 19, 2009

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Some state lawmakers are circling wagons around favorite institutions in their communities. Gov. Chris Gregoire doesn't sound so patient with this time-honored approach to fending off budget cuts this year.

In fact, the Democratic governor sounded like a determined budget cutter this morning. In one of her periodic sit-downs with Capitol reporters, she took up the subject of the budget — along with stuff about swine flu shots, a big (costly) landslide on Route 410, and her new chief of staff Jay Manning’s first day on the job. And she firmed up the estimated financial shortfall she thinks the state is facing in January, saying it is between $1.2 billion and $1.7 billion.

"The message to us to not cut anything really is not helpful. We need to be working together and figuring out how to get from where we are to the end," Gregoire said.

Yet "don't cut" is mostly the message she's gotten after a consultant's report last week recommended closures of some adult prison, juvenile prison and developmentally-disabled care facilities. And some lawmakers are faulting the study.

"Rather than tell me it's not a very good study … tell me what a good study would show. What should we close?" Gregoire asked. "The days of saying, 'this is bad,' 'shouldn’t do that,' 'don’t cut this,' and so on, are gone. … This is a day of, you know: 'This is not the right thing to cut; you should cut over here.' 'This is not the right thing to close; you should close over here.' That's the dialogue we have to engage in right now.''

House Republican Leader Richard DeBolt has written Gregoire a letter of complaint and called the report "political" and flawed. He has said it failed to take into account the full scope of options at the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration in recommending closure of Maple Lane School near Grand Mound.

DeBolt has argued that a study four years before showed closure of a facility at Naselle made more sense. Gregoire dismissed his complaints, saying the time to complain was in April when majority Democrats wrote their request for the study into their budget.

Democratic Rep. Chris Hurst of Enumclaw also is fighting to keep open the Rainier School near Buckley, and he's organized an evening meeting in Buckley for Thursday evening to hear what people think. Republican Rep. Dan Roach of Bonney Lake is expected to attend the event at 7:30 p.m. at the Buckley City Council chambers, Hurst said.

Hurst agrees there are facilities that might be closed around the state, just not Rainier. Hurst said the consultant's report shows it will cost $1,631,090 a year to prepare for closing Rainier School, thus creating a $5 million upfront cost before any savings are gleaned.

As he put it: "I guess my question to the governor would be, what are you going to cut to come up with the $1.6 million it's going to cost per year to start closing the school over a long period of time?’’

Gregoire's budget director Victor Moore said public comment is being accepted at the Office of Financial Management through the end of the week, and the consultant's final report is due by Nov. 1. Gregoire said she plans to consider that report in her budget recommendations to lawmakers.