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Budget committee snubs
public,
pushes supplemental spending plan through
Democrats on the House
Appropriations Committee approved a $225 million supplemental state
operating budget today without allowing the public to comment on the
spending plan, and just two days after the House Republican budget
negotiator got his first look at the budget’s details. The budget, filed
as Substitute House Bill 1037, passed by a party-line vote of 16-10.
“I have concerns about the
budget, but I’m just as concerned about how the process has been so
closed,” said
Rep. Gary
Alexander, lead Republican on the House
Appropriations Committee. “We talk about being ‘at the table’ during
budget negotiations, but I’ve barely been allowed in the room, much less
been at the table. It wasn’t until Tuesday that I first saw the
supplemental budget that came before us today. The only real chance we
had for input was through amendments. By then it’s too late to have much
influence.
“What bothers me even more is that the public has been shut out. If
there’s no public hearing on the budget bill, and elected
representatives like me are kept away, who speaks for the taxpayers?”
The supplemental operating
budget is intended to get state agencies and programs through to the end
of the 2003-05 fiscal biennium, which ends June 30. Its purpose is to
cover expenses, such as firefighting costs and school enrollment
increases, that couldn’t have been anticipated in 2003 when lawmakers
adopted a no-new-taxes two-year budget for government operations.
Alexander, R-Olympia, said Democrats rejected a Republican amendment
that would accelerate Gov. Christine Gregoire’s plan to cut 1,000
middle-management positions, by beginning the reductions before June 30
rather than waiting until the next biennium begins. Given state
government’s financial situation, even saving $50,000 – the estimated
average cost of one middle-management position -- before the end of this
biennium made the amendment worthwhile, Republicans argued.
The biggest single
expenditure in the supplemental spending plan is $105 million that would
go toward medical assistance supplied through the Department of Social
and Health Services. Alexander noted Gregoire favors changing
eligibility review requirements that have reduced the state’s caseload
back to standards that would again increase the caseload.
“Apparently it’s OK to
wait until the new biennium starts in July to begin saving money by
eliminating state middle-manager jobs. Why not wait until then to start
spending more money on an expansion of government-run health care?”
Alexander asked.
The budget also would
allocate $45 million to the state Health Services Account. Democrats
said the allocation is needed to cover rising health care costs.
Alexander said he will watch very closely to see if the House’s 2005-07
operating budget proposal pulls Health Services Account money back into
the state general fund, the way Gregoire’s proposed budget would. If it
does, he’ll suspect some “game-playing,” Alexander told committee
members.
“To me, a supplemental
budget is for things of an emergency nature – to get us through to the
end of the biennium. I see very little ‘emergency’ in this budget,
except for how the public trust is being damaged by the way it’s been
handled,” Alexander said.
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For more information, contact:
Brendon Wold, Public
Information Officer: (360) 786-7698
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