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The first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol and Seattle city hall, PubliCola has been called a “must-read” by the Seattle Post Intelligencer and a hot “New Media Mover and Shaker” by Seattle Magazine—which also cited our own Erica C. Barnett as the city's No. 1 news nerd.

Report: State Failing to Meet Basic Funding Commitments

Politics, This Washington   September 2, 2010 at 2:22 pm Erica C. Barnett

According to a new report by the Washington State Budget & Policy Center, the ongoing recession has led to major cuts to health care, education, environmental programs, and public safety. During the current budget cycle (2009-2011), the state will spend 10 percent less than would have been necessary to fund prior commitments in education, communities, health care, and economic security, the report concludes.

Education spending has been cut 11.3 percent; public safety and economic-development programs have been cut 7.3 percent; spending on health and the environment has been cut 9.3 percent; and economic-security programs have been cut 9.7 percent.

Budget cuts of this depth and breadth represent a sharp reduction in our investment in the future of our state. They have resulted in the loss of affordable quality health insurance for over 44,000 people, reduced access to higher education, a dramatic decrease in natural resource protection, the loss of needed financial assistance for people who are unemployed because of a disability, and more.

The cuts have not been equal across the board. Overall, the areas that will be cut the most include programs that cultivate opportunities for higher education (down 17.3 percent); programs to promote sustainability like the Department of Fish and Wildlife (down 33.4 percent); and programs that protect public health and the environment like funding for the HPV vaccine and substance-abuse programs (down 23 percent).

The report concludes, “The outlook for the next biennium is bleak because economic woes will continue to hold back revenue growth. According to the most recent forecast, current revenue expectations will be $3 billion short of the amount needed to continue our current commitments.”

Read the whole report here.




  • NorthBiker

    start firing people. Cost of living increases? The state employees should be taking a pay cut to keep their jobs like the rest of us are having to do. This is a joke.

  • Anonymous

    Firing people and cutting pay will only continue to erode these services (since people have to be paid to deliver them) and make the recession much worse. We need more jobs and higher wages for every worker, not fewer jobs and less wages.

  • Anonymous

    Worth noting that I-1053 would force further and deeper cuts in the 2011 budget session if it passed – and I-1098 would take us in the other direction of enabling the restoration of these services, which are vital to economic recovery, funded by wealthy Washingtonians who have money to spare.

  • Smallfish

    How about accountability for the way our government has been spending for the last decade? Let’s take the Brightwater project as an example of progressive policy failing to fulfill the politically driven promises over that time period. $800 million price tag out of the gate and we are now bumping up on $2 Billion. Should we continue to believe Government projections that prove to be over 100% off the mark to the tune of a Billion dollars? Or should we hold these same politicians to account for their failed promises, resulting in 40 years of debt and rate increases, that we were told would be paid by new development that has also failed to materialize in our high tax, union stronghold here in King County. Teamsters protest Mexican truck drivers and Mexico just put a legal 20% tariff on WA apples because we aren’t adhering to NAFTA rules. Is that creating jobs? Should we be killing WA jobs in favor of International Union jobs? When does the insanity stop?

  • NorthBiker

    you need to read up on what the role of the government is and how its limited for a reason. the government is the slave to the people, not the other way around. the only way for governement workers to get higher wages and more jobs is to raise more taxes. taxes are there in the first place because industry is moving forward. the current state govenrnment can blame no one but themselves for the incredible expansion into questionable areas and mismanagment of funds when they were to be had. if your one of thr thousands of state workers that need to polish their resumes, then good luck . november is coming fast.