The House Democratic budget is formally on the table: The $30.66 billion supplemental spending plan lops some $81.6 million in local government aid, delays $405 million in funding for K-12 public schools into the 2013-15 biennium, and makes roughly half the cuts to welfare programs that Gov. Chris Gregoire and House Republicans have proposed.
House Ways and Means chairman Ross Hunter, D-Medina, is explaining the cuts in a press conference that began at 9:15 a.m. A summary of his budget gore and glory is here.
Like the House Republican plan outlined Friday, the budget assumes $18 million from ending a mortgage-interest tax break that benefits large out of state banks. It also assumes $13.1 million in new revenue from passage of legislation to tax makers of roll-your-own cigarettes. But it also cuts into the Department of Corrections’ budgets, reducing community supervision of released offenders and chemical dependency treatment while adding money for prison radios.
And it cuts criminal justice and courts funding for local governments, while assuming legislation passes to give those governments more local tax options.
Higher education is hit again, to the tune of $65 million for institutions and $10 million for State Need Grants. But Hunter’s plan adds money for some science and technology degree programs, leaving a net $51 million cut for institutions, according to his highlights paper.
And like the GOP, the Democrats propose cutting the $850 per employee monthly allocation for health and other insurance benefits to $800. Gregoire proposed $825. Both House plans cut the state contribution to the Public Employee Benefits Board by about $33 million, but the Democrats do not call for the 24-day furloughs that the GOP did. UPDATE: On the other hand, the budget preserves state payments into the pension system.
UPDATE: Counting the liquor privatization approved by voters last November, the budget would reduce state government jobs by 1,554, Hunter said in his presentation.
The Senate is expected to answer with its counter-proposal in anywhere from a few days to a week, according to Senate Ways and Means chairman Ed Murray, D-Seattle. Murray and his counterpart, Republican Sen. Joseph Zarelli, are still working on a bipartisan proposal.