GOVERNOR'S BUDGET "WILL DEVASTATE SERVICES AND PEOPLE," UNION TELLS SENATORS

The budget proposed by Gov. Chris Gregoire that's balanced on the back of vital services and state employees is the wrong solution for economic recovery.

That's what Federation Executive Director Greg Devereux told the Senate Ways and Means Committee Tuesday.

"The budget eliminates vital services to the public at a time when they are needed most," Devereux said, ticking off proposed cuts to the GA-U and Basic Health programs and closures of Yakima Valley School, Naselle Youth Camp and Pine Lodge Corrections Center for Women.

He also criticized the governor's proposal to put 2,600 state employees on the unemployment rolls while creating 25,000 jobs in the private sector.

"Few economists would dispute that it is easier and cheaper to preserve existing jobs than to create new ones...," he said.

"In effect, many of the proposed cuts will lead to greater downstream costs and only makes the recession and the job-cutting downward spiral worse."

There's a more sensible path, Devereux said.

"We cannot and should not try to cut our way out of this fiscal crisis," he said.

"We must identify and implement every efficiency in state government we can. But we also must carefully scrutinize tax preferences for possible rollback and we should look for new sources of revenue, which will equitably spread the cost of vital services across the population."