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State Workers
Saturday, March 16, 2002
Questions, outrage churn in wake of 2002 session Workers unsure of budget's effect on health benefit costs, pay raises BRAD SHANNON , AND PATRICK CONDON, THE OLYMPIAN Originally published Saturday, March 16, 2002
"They've left the tough choices to me, and I'll make those tough choices." -- Gov. Gary Locke
OLYMPIA -- Lawmakers broke camp early Friday morning after a 60-day legislative session that plugged the $1.6 billion hole in the state budget and will give voters the final say on a 9-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax.
The last-minute deals by majority Democrats also left many questions -- everything from how much state employees will pay for their health benefits to uncertainty about whether home care workers will get 25-cent-an-hour pay raises.
Also left in limbo is the state's slimmed-down package of criminal-justice aid for small counties, including Mason, and to cities like Bucoda and Tenino, which have suffered since Initiative 695 cut off their supply of car-tax dollars.
Veto possibilities
House Democrats tried, but failed, to get enough votes to raise liquor taxes, which could have paid for $40 million of these budget extras.
Lacking the extra cash, Gov. Gary Locke now may have to veto them to balance the books of a $22.5 billion budget, which closed the $1.6 billion shortfall by raising revenue and trimming virtually every program in state government.
"They've left the tough choices to me, and I'll make those tough choices," Locke said in a news conference at 12:45 a.m. Friday, shortly after lawmakers adjourned their session on time and without raising across-the-board taxes.
Outrage over the Legislature's actions might run deep, especially in South Sound, where nearly 25,000 state workers will receive no cost-of-living pay increases in July -- for the first time since 1998 and the sixth time since 1982, according to the Department of Personnel. Also to be determined are the number of state jobs in South Sound that will be eliminated.
Statewide, 1,619 full-time-equivalent jobs will be cut in the 2001-03 supplemental budget, with about 670 new jobs created in the Department of Corrections and other areas.
The threat of Locke's vetoes stirred labor activists, who have been helping home care workers organize. By Friday morning, they had mounted a telephone campaign to push Locke to preserve their pay raises.
"There's absolutely no excuse for the Legislature or the governor to leave these workers in dire poverty," said Adam Glickman, an advocate for home care workers with Service Employees International Union in Seattle. "They dress, feed and help with bowel and bladder care, keeping these seniors in their own homes. For us to continue paying them $7.68 an hour with no benefits is just outrageous."
Locke defended lawmakers, despite his own wrangling with Democratic House Speaker Frank Chopp over Chopp's refusal to adopt the $7.7 billion transportation tax package in a floor vote. Instead the issue will come before voters in the November general election.
"They did what they had to, to tackle the biggest budget crunch in our state in 20 to 30 years," Locke said.
Here are the highlights:
South Sound
- State workers get no cost-of-living increase, the first time that's happened since 1998, said Sharon Whitehead of the Department of Personnel.
- Health care premiums will go up to about $62 a month on average if Locke vetoes the $8 million in extra money that Olympia Reps. Sam Hunt and Sandra Romero, both Democrats, fought to include.
- Tax relief to cover unpaid taxes for The Washington Center for the Performing Arts, and similar nonprofit groups, was included in the budget agreement. However, the center will have to start collecting the tax on rentals of the facility to for-profit groups, which had triggered the tax debt.
- The budget includes $850,000 to complete the state's share of rebuilding earthquake-damaged Deschutes Parkway, a key link between downtown Olympia and the city's west side and Tumwater.
- A supplemental transportation budget cut construction money for widening state Route 510 on Lacey's east side, diverting the money to approaches on the new Narrows Bridge. However, the contract on the Lacey project already was awarded, so the work will proceed and the cut will not take place, said Sen. Karen Fraser, D-Thurston County.
- The State Library, targeted for closure by Locke, would be transferred to the administration of Secretary of State Sam Reed's agency. A study would determine its long-term fate.
- A bill is awaiting Locke's signature that would give Olympia an additional year to use state tax dollars to break ground on a conference center.
- A Department of Fish and Wildlife hatchery at McAllister Creek will be closed.
- Mission Creek Youth Camp in Mason County will be closed.
Education
- No permanent and broader tuition-setting authority was given to colleges and universities, but the budget does let Evergreen raise tuition by 14 percent to cover some of its $1.8 million funding cut. South Puget Sound Community College would be allowed to raise tuition 12 percent.
- Public school teachers will lose one of three preparation days, which their Washington Education Union leaders are calling a pay cut, despite a 3.6 percent pay increase guaranteed to teachers under Initiative 732.
- Roughly $90 million will be cut from various K-12 programs, including the math and reading corps. About $1.3 million that used to go to privately run education centers, including the Thurston County Off-Campus School in Olympia, now will go to local school districts, which then can decide whether to pass the money along as a grant or contract.
- A school bullying bill awaits Locke's signature. House Bill 1444 would require school districts to have policies to prohibit the bullying, harassment or intimidation of students.
Health care and human services
- Legal immigrants and children of undocumented workers will be transferred off the Medicaid health care program and into the Basic Health Plan, which is a subsidized insurance program.
- Dozens of programs that help vulnerable adults, children and non-English-speaking people with medical needs will be scaled back.
- Home care workers will get 25-cent-an-hour pay raises, unless Locke vetoes them.
- Nursing homes avoided $72 million in cuts sought in Locke's original budget plan.
- Case manager hiring was frozen and the staff reduced for certain developmental disabilities programs.
State parks
- The State Parks and Recreation Commission will end the leases to run 13 parks owned by other agencies. Those agencies could decide to continue operating the parks.
Criminal justice
- Thurston and five other counties statewide would be pre-empted from deciding where the Department of Social and Health Services places facilities for civilly committed sex predators who meet court requirements to live in less restrictive settings. The counties can make the decisions instead if they put siting plans in place by Sept. 1.
- Sentences for some drug offenses will be reduced, with some of the savings from the freed-up prison beds redirected into local drug-treatment programs.
Anti-terrorism
- A bill allowing greater government secrecy to thwart terrorists is awaiting Locke's signature. Attorney General Christine Gregoire and open-government activists reached a compromise with Rep. Kathy Haigh, D-Shelton, on language to ensure federal officials can share anti-terrorist intelligence with state officials without fearing the information would be disclosed to the public.
- Bills that would have created new state crimes of terrorism -- and imposing the death penalty for the worst offenses -- died, as did a bill to allow wiretapping that Locke did not fully endorse.
Political editor Brad Shannon can be reached at shannonbrad@hotmail.com.
On the Web:
- Complete text of Senate Operating Budget Bill
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