A Show of Hands: Is Anyone Happy with the WA Senate Budget?
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March 31, 2009
Olympia, WA – Washington State senators say they've met their responsibility to balance the budget – but almost no one feels good about what they've come up with, the senators included. Some say this year's proposed cuts to education, state programs and services would undo at least a decade of progress if they are enacted.
Sandra Schroeder, president of AFT Washington, the union that represents college faculty and staff, warns a 14-percent cut to higher education would mean fewer professors, 10,500 fewer slots for students, and higher fees for those who attend state schools.
"It makes no sense at all during an economic crisis to be turning students away, when we all know that one of the ways that we get people back into new and different jobs and careers is through higher education."
The Senate budget also would mean layoffs for at least 4500 state workers. Tim Welch, communications director for the Washington Federation of State Employees, says it's impossible to predict which agencies would take the biggest hits.
"For 60,000 state employees, they've got contract rights that protect them, and they'll be able to bargain the impacts of these proposed cuts, including layoffs. So, we may be able to mitigate some of the cuts at the bargaining table, preserve services, preserve jobs, keep people working and prime the economy."
Members of the Service Employees' International Union, SEIU Local 775NW, who care for Washington's elderly and people with disabilities, would see fewer hours and a pay freeze. It will drive some out of the profession altogether, according to the union's Vice-President and Director of Public Affairs, Adam Glickman.
"I don't know what it says about Senate Democrats' values when they treat their lowest-wage workers the worst. Six thousand home care workers, and these are people who make $10 an hour, will lose their health insurance because of this budget - and all of those workers will have their pay cut."
Cheryl Murfin, communications director of the progressive advocacy group Fuse Washington, hopes voters see this week's budget releases as a wake-up call to revamp the state tax structure.
"The quality of life that we enjoy here is a result of investments that we've made in our public systems, and we've worked hard to do that over the last five to ten years. And these kinds of massive cuts that the Senate has come up with, completely undermine our public system."
The Senate is recommending a total of $3.8 billion worth of cuts, about half of them to education, from kindergarten to college. The House budget proposal, coming out today, is expected to be just as grim.