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<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   ADDITIONAL ITEMS • Washington state budget actions ( PDF)   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Wednesday, October 8, 2008 State budget: Governor wants $240 million in savings The governor is working to limit a projected deficit and blunt criticisms from her opponent. By Jerry Cornfield Herald Writer OLYMPIA -- Gov. Chris Gregoire on Tuesday detailed $240 million in cuts and savings in state spending in the next nine months, a move aimed at reducing the scale of a projected deficit and blunting criticism from her political challenger. The actions include slashing 1 percent from most agency budgets and suspending preparations for major Democratic initiatives of a family leave program and tax credits for the working poor. Tuesday's moves, coupled with $90 million in reductions ordered in August, put the state on pace to spend hundreds of millions of dollars less in the 2009-11 budget, according to the governor's budget office. That should eat into what state Senate staff now predict will be a $3.2 billion shortfall, he said. "These cuts aren't designed to solve the whole problem. It sets us up to more easily solve the problem," said Glenn Kuper, communications director for the governor's budget office. According to the governor's budget office, this year's savings total $330 million and will lead to $605 million less in spending in the next budget. Gregoire said in a statement Tuesday the reduced spending added to an anticipated $850 million surplus next July equals the erasing of nearly half of the predicted shortfall. Dino Rossi, Gregoire's Republican challenger, didn't see it that way. He called today's action "no more than budget cherry-picking. It will have almost no net effect on the actual size of the deficit." In a prepared statement, he said many of the cuts amount to savings from lower than expected expenses and new revenues from the federal government. "The incumbent cannot honestly claim that she has cut the size of the deficit in half," he said. "We are still facing a very real and very serious budget deficit. We will not be able to put our state on a fiscally sustainable course until we address the root cause of our budgetary problems and bring spending in line with revenue." The most significant of the actions announced Tuesday is the slashing of agency budgets by 1 percent. This is projected to curb $45.6 million this year, $121.3 million through the next budget. It could result in layoffs, though Gregoire did not order any specific jobs be eliminated, Kuper said. No services will be reduced and certain programs such as running prisons, patrolling highways and teaching students will be exempt from the 1 percent trimming, he said. Agency directors will decide how to carve those dollars from their budgets with the fiscal year already well under way. "It is certainly the hardest cut to take but they also have the opportunity to tailor it to their agency," he said. "That's better than us dictating what to do." Suspending the computer setup for family leave will save $4.2 million, and slowing implementation of the Working Families Tax Exemption will net $1 million. Another $5.2 million will be saved in a property-tax-deferral program that has proven far less successful than Democratic lawmakers hoped when they approved it in a special session in 2007. Only 47 people have signed up and $300,000 -- of a budgeted $5.5 million -- spent. Not all of Tuesday's actions amount to cuts. The state will receive $76 million more in federal funds than anticipated this year for its Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program. This will amount to $150 million more in the next budget. Roughly 51,000 families are served in this program. Tuesday marked the first time, the governor mentioned the $3.2 billion figure for the projected deficit. Nonpartisan staff of the state Senate Ways and Means Committee came up with that number based on assumptions of no cuts in current state programs plus higher costs for schools, prisons and providing health care to low-income children. Rossi and the state Republican Party regularly have repeatedly said Gregoire's refusal to acknowledge the number signaled her unwillingness to admit the looming shortfall. "We are still not accepting that that is the number we'll be writing our budget to. We'll find out what that number is in November," Kuper said. He is referring to when the next revenue forecast for the state is issued. Gregoire will rely on that report in writing the budget she will send to the Legislature in December. Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com. READER COMMENTS Be the first to comment. You must be a registered user and verify your e-mail address to post comments to blogs or articles on HeraldNet. To register, click here. To read other terms and conditions, click here. Log out

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