Locke threatens broader cuts

Governor could order cuts 'within a few days'

BRAD SHANNON, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Wednesday, March 6, 2002

OLYMPIA -- Gov. Gary Locke will order across-the-board cuts to state programs next week if lawmakers are unable to bridge the state's $1.6 billion budget gap by the end of the legislative session on March 14, he said.

The cuts would total at least $350 million.

Locke said Tuesday that he could order the cuts "within a few days, depending on the progress of the House and Senate. We have about a week. Less than a week, actually."

Neither Locke nor his budget aides could say how many jobs might be jettisoned from the state work force to make those cuts.

Locke said his staff and state agencies have been working to get ready if the cuts are needed, he said. "We're ready to proceed," Locke said at a news conference.

He said he hopes lawmakers will reach an agreement by the end of the 60-day session, he said.

Locke's threat came the same day a $22.5 billion supplemental budget proposal from Senate Democrats drew mixed responses in a public hearing.

The House, led by Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Helen Sommers, D-Seattle, is expected to follow suit today with a counterproposal to the Senate plan written by Sen. Lisa Brown, D-Spokane.

Besides cutting up to 1,500 jobs and $654 million in previously approved programs, the Senate plan would sell off a quarter of the state's future tobacco settlement receipts in exchange for $525 million in cash.

The senate budget also would tap all but $300 million of state reserves, and it would spend $1.4 billion more than the revenue the state is expected to receive during the 2001-03 budget cycle.

Tobacco deal criticized

Republicans in both the House and Senate have ripped into the tobacco settlement approach, declaring it a risky, one-time budget fix that sets the state up for future shortfalls in the medical programs that have been subsidized by the roughly $150 million-a-year stream of tobacco money.

State Treasurer Michael Murphy and Attorney General Christine Gregoire, both Democrats, have warned that the state's credit rating could be damaged if lawmakers use a one-time revenue fix.

Critics repeated their charges Tuesday, but a national expert on the sale of bonds based on tobacco-settlement cash payments told the Senate Ways and Means Committee that the one-time use of such funds would not in itself weaken bond ratings.

And Sen. Dan Swecker, R-Rochester, who co-sponsored the bill to allow use of the tobacco-settlement money, said it is a tool worth considering to protect state employees from deeper program cuts and layoffs.

The Senate-proposed "no new taxes" budget is a positive development, Locke said, but its use of tobacco money was no one's first choice.

The budget plan is far more surgical in its cuts and therefore preferable to having him order across-the-board cuts, Locke said.

"I see nothing that cannot be negotiated,'' Locke said.

He dismissed calls for a temporary tax increase because new taxes would require a two-thirds legislative vote.

Cheers and jeers

The Senate proposal drew muted criticism from human services advocates.

Many advocates praised Brown for finding a way to shield vulnerable citizens from the worst cuts.

Tony Lee of the Fremont Public Association warned that legal immigrants and children of undocumented residents could be lost in the shuffle if they are moved off Medicaid to the state-subsidized Basic Health Plan.

But other activists were happy that the Senate chose not to adopt Locke's $72 million cut to nursing homes.

However, they are worried that the Senate would provide more money for developmentally disabled people using cuts to the state's Social Security supplement.

"None of these are good choices," said lobbyist Lonnie Johns-Brown, who represents several social services groups. "We're talking about the least bad of bad choices.''

"Overall it could have been scarier," agreed Barbara Flye of Washington Citizen Action, a labor-backed health advocacy group.

Environmental advocates criticized the budget for what they called disproportionate cuts to natural resources programs.

Of the proposed 1,500 job cuts, 256, or about one in six, would come from their sector, said Josh Baldi of the Washington Environmental Council and Craig Engelking of the Sierra Club.

Money for a rescue tugboat at Neah Bay also would be cut next year, leaving the coast vulnerable to oil spills from disabled tankers, said Bruce Wishart of People for Puget Sound.

Evergreen cuts

Cuts to The Evergreen State College would amount to $2 million or 8 percent of the school's budget, an amount that would be "significant" to absorb, college lobbyist Edie Harding told the Ways and Means Committee.

Other advocates for public primary and secondary schools lamented cuts to teacher preparation days, cuts to block grants that help principals' professional development and other cuts.

If Senate and House lawmakers grow too entangled to adopt a budget, potentially deeper cuts could come from Locke, although he is not expected to try to close the entire $1.6 billion budget gap by across-the-board cuts.

"My instinct is we may have to do something, and it will be short-lived," said Marty Brown, Locke's budget director.

Brad Shannon, political editor for The Olympian, can be reached at 360-753-1688 or bshannon@olympia.gannett.com.

What's next

The Senate's proposed budget could be approved by the Senate Ways and Means Committee in its 3:30 p.m. meeting today.

It then would go to the Senate for a vote as soon as Friday.

A House budget proposal also is in the works and it, too, would receive a committee hearing and House floor vote unless leaders in the House and Senate decide to negotiate directly on a final document.

Gov. Gary Locke proposed his budget in December before the latest revenue and caseload reports increased the state's budget gap by almost $400 million, to $1.6 billion.

The Legislature's 60-day session is scheduled to end March 14.

On the Web:

- Senate Ways & Means: 2002 Supplemental Budget Proposals

- Senate Ways & Means Fiscal Updates 2002

- Washington State Legislature

- Washington State Treasurer

- Gov. Gary Locke

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