KING COUNTY LEGISLATIVE ACTION COMMITTEE
King County Democrats
Legislative Action Newsletter #14
Session Wrap-up
May 27, 2011
As you may know, the special session ended Wednesday not at the stroke of midnight, but about two hours early. The next bill to be passed--the one left on the table--was HB 2048 which would have extended a $10 addition to the recording feel to fund many local homeless and low-income housing operations. Due to support from the landlords' association, as well as housing advocates across the state, Rep. Phyllis Kenney's bill passed the House and was on the docket in the Senate, with 25 votes committed. The bill wasn't called to the floor. "It just seemed like they ran out of steam," said one observer. Advocates are regrouping.
From Sen. Scott White's (46th) session wrap-up newsletter:
...Still, despite the odds, this year we managed to avoid eliminating essential public services, aiming instead to reduce but preserve, and we do so at levels higher than others have proposed.
We preserved the popular state-only children's health program; the Disability Lifeline; Basic Health; our state's food assistance program; medical interpreter services; National Board bonuses for teachers; and ECEAP slots for three year olds. All of these programs had been marked for elimination in the governor's preliminary budget.
Not only did we preserve essential government services, we also reinvested in areas most likely to help families weather the Great Recession. Our proposal will reduce K-3 class size in high-poverty schools and maintain the State Need Grant while expanding worker re-training and low-income housing support. In the face of our current political and economic realities, preservation and expansion of each of these services is noteworthy.
Here's an overview of the 2011-13 budget that passed the Legislature:
Big picture:
* Spends approximately $32.2 billion.
* Makes reductions of $4.6 billion.
* Leaves a reserve of over $723 million.
* Provides a funding level of $13.8 billion for K-12.
* Maintains Senate policy of distributing the Higher Ed. reductions according to the COP recommendations.
* Preserves as much of the social safety net as possible (i.e. BHP, Children's Health, Disability Lifeline Medical).
* Leaves reserves to guard against further downturn.
* Not only makes cuts but uses the opportunity to put the state on more sound fiscal footing for the future.
* Debt service reform [in statute, not the Constitution].
* Reforming GET [prepaid tuition] program.
* Enhancing Rainy Day Fund.
K-12 Education:
* Invested $33.6 million in K-3 class size for poverty schools.
* $5 million transportation enhancement.
* $3 million principal and teacher evaluations.
* Suspends I-732 and I-728, and K-4 class size enhancements.
* Eliminated revised bus depreciation proposal.
Higher Ed:
* 22 percent cuts totaling $600 million.
* Accounting for tuition increases, cuts total 5.1 percent.
* Mitigated with increased financial aid - $124 million for the state need grant.
Low Income Health Care:
* Preserves the Basic Health Plan at 34,000 (42,000 currently).
* Continues Disability Lifeline Medical with no cap.
* Changes and reduces Children's Health by lowering income threshold to 200 percent of Rolls hospital rates back 7 percent (inpatient) and 8 percent (outpatient). Saves $111 million.
* Reduces community clinic payment rates by about 10 percent (about 1/3 of recent increases) saving $42 million and continuing federal match.
Other Health Care:
* Take Charge Family Planning (Eligibility expanded in SB 5912).
* State funded family planning grants - Senate reduced by 11 percent.
* HIV prevention (No cuts).
* Medical Interpreters-Senate position: Reduced by $2.8 million.
Compensation:
* Three percent salary reduction (temporary) for all state employees, represented and not. No salary cut for those making under $30,000.
* K-12 salary reduction.
o 1.9 percent for teachers and classified.
o 3 percent for other K-12 staff.
Long term and Developmental Disability care:
* 10 percent reduction in Medicaid personal care hours, based on acuity.
* Saves $41 million from the nursing home safety net assessment.
* Employment and day programs reformed for DDD clients.
* Assumes the consolidation [closure] of Frances Haddon Morgan Center for people with developmental disabilities.
Human Services:
* Reforms [eliminates] the Disability Lifeline cash program, establishing a new Housing and Necessities Program [vouchers and in-kind].
* State food assistance is reduced by 50 percent.
* Refugee and naturalization services are reduced by 50 percent.
Natural Resources:
* Discover Pass generates $69 million ($49 million after providing $20 million of transition funding).
* Hunting and Fishing licenses generate $4 million.
* Administrative consolidation saves $5 million.
Public Safety:
* $1.4 million cut in prison-based treatment programs.
* Expanded juvenile treatment by $1 million.
* Expanded housing vouchers for recently released offenders by $844,000.
* Reduced and restructured Family Policy Council.
* $5 million investment to enhance prison safety.
o Body armor
o Proximity cards
o Radio upgrades
o Add staff at Monroe and Washington State Penitentiary responsible for tracking staff whereabouts.
Other Savings:
Management efficiency saves 414.2 million by requiring agencies to implement management and administrative reforms.
From Sarah Howard's Washbucket 5/26/11
Senate passes operating, capital budgets The Senate gave strong bipartisan support to the state's $32.2 billion operating budget for 2011-13, and near unanimous support to the $2.8 billion Capital Budget. Jim Camden with The Spokesman-Review.
Senate passes state's $32.2 billion budget in show of bipartisanship. The Senate voted 34-13 on Wednesday to give final approval to a $32.2 billion state budget agreement that emerged from a side-by-side effort by majority Democrat and minority Republican senators. Brad Shannon and Jordan Schrader with Olympian The Olympian.
Around the state on 5/26/11, from WSLU's The Stand:
In today's News Tribune - Freshmen force, lose roll call on tax breaks for banks - Rep. Laurie Jinkins got her floor vote. It was 52 in favor, 42 against - a majority, sure, but not the two-thirds supermajority it takes to raise taxes. So a tax break for banks won't be scaled back.
Dave Grove's note - It may have failed, but it will be nice to be able to inform voters which Representatives sided with big banks over local schools.
Sarajane's note: keep reading for the list (Note that the list does not contain links to individual legislators' pages.)
In today's Yakima H-R - Last-minute compromise saves Yakima Valley School - SB 5459 cuts off further admission to the school but will allow its 81 residents to stay for the rest of their lives, if they or their guardians so desire. The bill also allows the state to turn the school's campus into a smaller community living facility once the number of residents falls to 16.
In today's Kitsap Sun - Last attempt to save Frances Haggan Morgan Center fails - Rep. Sherry Appleton (D-Poulsbo) tried to keep the Bremerton facility open longer by adding language to a bill overhauling the state's services for developmentally disabled people. It failed on an apparently close voice vote, with no roll call taken.
At SeattlePI.com - Olympia passes liquor privatization bill - The Legislature on Wednesday approved a measure allowing the state to consider private sector bids to take over its liquor distribution system. This comes as Costco launches a new initiative effort to completely privatize the sales and distribution of liquor.
What happened with Workers Comp?
John Burbank, Economic Opportunity Institute on 5/26/11
You might think that Olympia would decide it was time to treat injured workers with a little more respect and a little more compensation. But led by Gov. Chris Gregoire, the Senate and House passed legislation to decrease benefits for injured workers. Sure, the debate was around workers' compensation "reform." That's how you make anything look good - you call it "reform."
But look at what the bill actually does, and you'll see that it simply transfers money from workers who are injured on the job to their employers. What a deal! You get hurt, and some of the money that used to let you live with some dignity goes to the company where you were injured.
Other than the governor's own $1 billion estimate, it's hard to get a precise figure on how much money is being transferred from workers to employers - because unlike every other bill with financial impacts, this one did not even get a fiscal note. One immediate result is that injured workers will not get any cost-of-living adjustment this year that was previously due them.
Who helped the governor with this gift to business? Republicans of course, but, hey, they are just being honest about what they believe in and who pays for their elections. Democrats helped out, too.
Seattle voters rejected Initiative 1082, the attempt to enable private insurance companies to feed off of injured workers, by a 3-to-1 margin. In the 36th Legislative District (Magnolia, Queen Anne, Phinney Ridge) and 46th (Greenwood, Northgate, Lake City and Laurelhurst ), the vote was 73 percent in opposition. In the 43rd (Capitol Hill, University District, Madison Park, Washington Park, Broadmoor, Montlake, Wallingford, Madison Valley) and 37th (Rainier Valley, Madrona, North Beacon Hill, Rainier Beach, Mt. Baker, Leschi, Columbia City, southern Capitol Hill, Skyway), more than three out of four voters opposed I-1082.
So did Seattle legislators embrace the shrinking of injured workers' benefits, in the guise of reform? Their ambivalence as a group says a lot about the muddle the Democrats are in.
State Reps. Mary Lou Dickerson, Joe Fitzgibbon, Bob Hasegawa, Zack Hudgins, Phyllis Kenney, and Sharon Tomiko Santos all sided with injured workers, as did state Sens. Adam Kline, Ed Murray, Sharon Nelson, and Scott White. They remembered their constituents. But too many Democratic legislators gave in to corporate demands to take benefits from injured workers. These included state Reps. Reuven Carlyle, Eileen Cody, David Frockt, Ruth Kagi, and Jamie Pedersen, joined by state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles.
From Sarah Howard's WashBucket 5/26/11
Medical marijuana: Rolling out another one With prosects for medical marijuana legislation dead in the Legislature, a group unhappy with what's left of the cannabis law post-veto will try to get it on the November ballot so voters can dump it. JIM CAMDEN with The Spokesman-Review.
WA keeps immigrant children in state health plan The Washington state Legislature has approved changes to the state's health care program for poor kids, allowing a raise in premiums for undocumented children to keep them enrolled. AP in The Seattle Times.
Who voted for Wall Street banks over lowering class size?
House Bill 2078 (Funding K-3 class size reductions by narrowing and repealing certain tax exemptions) was a litmus test vote, not only to separate the sheep from the goats, but to demonstrate the unconstitutionality of requiring a 2/3 vote on a measure that should be able to be passed by a clear majority, were it not for I-1053.
Received in the House on May 16, 2011. Failed 52 to 42 in the House on May 25, 2011, although this bill passed with a constitutional majority, it failed to gain the required two-third majority required under I-1053 for all tax increases. See who voted "Yes" and who voted "No":
Funding K-3 class size reductions by narrowing and repealing certain tax exemptions
The four House Democrats who voted against this measure were Hurst, Kelley, Miloscia and Wylie. All other Democrats voted in favor of this bill, while ALL Republicans voted against the bill.