Final Budget Compromise Spares Institutions, Parks, Hatcheries, GA-U -- At Least for Now

The final budget compromise released this morning appears to spare Yakima Valley School, Green Hill School, Naselle Youth Camp, state parks, fish hatcheries and the General Assistance-Unemployable program. But beware: Some of these are conditional saves and the best that can be said is they’ll live to fight another day.

We’re scouring the budget bill the House will consider today to make sure we haven’t missed anything. But the budget is in line with a summary released last night.

Agencies and higher education institutions will still be encouraged to cut work hours and impose furloughs to cut the budget. But the budget includes a “no-harm, no-foul” proviso so affected employees would keep permanent employee status, full insurance benefits, full accrual of retirement service credit and a living wage.

There also will be about 7,000 job cuts, although it’s not clear how many are K-12, higher ed faculty and classified state agency and higher education employees.

On health care, the budget assumes a lower inflation rate. That means the Federation-led Super Coalition of all state employee unions will return to the bargaining table in May to bargain to keep the current premium share structure where the state (employer) pays 88 percent and employees pay 12 percent. Higher point-of-service costs, such as office visit co-pays, could come, effective Jan. 1, but the Public Employees Benefits Board will have to meet and decide any such increases.

And as you already know from the contract re-negotiation process, no pay raises or other economics. Employer contributions to the pension system are reduced to reflect changes to actuarial assumptions and methods. This will not impact retirement benefits; the state is just putting off some of its contributions until several decades in the future.

Back to what’s been saved—or saved for now.

• Yakima Valley School is saved. However, we had heard there would be a proviso to study future closures of any residential habilitation center, so we’ll continue to look for that.

• Green Hill School and Naselle Youth Camp. No specific institution is mentioned, but the budget assumes one institution will close. Which institution will be decided by a study to be conducted by the Office of Financial Management.

• State parks would all remain open with funding from the $5 “opt out” plan when drivers renew their license tabs. However, a budget proviso directs the state Parks Commission to pursue transferring ownership of state parks where local governments, tribes or others have expressed interest in taking them over.

• No fish hatcheries would be closed, with a big IF. If there aren’t sufficient new revenues, the Department of Fish and Wildlife may close or convert six hatcheries: McKernan, Colville, Omak, Bellingham, Arlington and Mossyrock.

• The General Assistance-Unemployable program remains, with more focus on getting the right services to people.

So our work is still cut out for us. We have a little breathing space, but we have to roll up our sleeves and keep fighting.

Here are a few other cuts that stand out in the budget:

• Higher Education—Huge staff cuts across the line, but it’s unclear how many Federation members would be affected. But the overall job cuts are as follows: University of Washington—637; Washington State University—362; Eastern Washington University—96; Central Washington University—100.5; The Evergreen State College—57; Western Washington University—130.5; the Community and Technical College system—835.1.

• Corrections—Thanks to a full-court press by Federation Community Corrections members to save jobs and public safety, the number of positions that could be lost has gone from the nearly 490 the governor requested now down to 265. That’s because of the still troubling but much improved ESSB 5288 lowering supervision of offenders and cutting the length of sentences. A proviso directs the Department of Corrections to make these reductions with the least possible impact on staff—leaving the door open to fewer job cuts.

• We’re still scouring the budget to see the impact of any privatization of Child Welfare Services.

• In the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration, enhanced parole would be eliminated. Two contracted group homes, Griffin and Touchstone, would be closed.

• In Mental Health, staffing at state hospitals is cut by about 16 positions.

• At the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island, 32 residential rehabilitation counselors would be cut.

• In Fish and Wildlife, seven enforcement officer positions would be cut.

That’s it for now. As the final budget debate continues, we will have regular updates. Keep checking back.

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