BUDGET DIRECTOR PRESSED ON GOVERNOR’S FAILURE TO FORWARD FUNDING REQUEST FOR YOUR CONTRACTS

And that call for sensible solutions is more urgent than ever after the first few rounds of legislative committee briefings on the governor’s proposed and deep budget cuts.

In the House Ways and Means Committee, state budget director Victor Moore, with the secretaries from DSHS, Corrections and Health, laid out the draconian cuts.

Rep. Steve Conway pressed Moore about why the governor did not honor the negotiated contracts and why she did not forward to the Legislature a funding request for the economic parts of the contracts.

Conway asked Moore why the governor didn’t re-open bargaining to re-negotiate in the face of a worsening economy.

Moore had declared the contracts as not “financially feasible” and said the law tied his hands. “I don’t have the authority to go back (to the table),” Moore told the committee.

As it is, the governor’s inaction has thrown your current and future contract into limbo. If the Legislature has no funding request to debate, the current contract expires June 30 and the one you just negotiated can’t take effect. That means even non-economic workplace rights.

CALL TO ACTION

So, continue your calls to legislators at 1-800-562-6000. Tell them:

I respectfully urge you to support funding our negotiated pay raises and other economic parts of the contracts we negotiated with the governor. Without that, we actually will have no contract come July 1, 2009! All provisions, even non-economic workplace rights, are in jeopardy.