(Editor's note: The following opinion piece was provided from Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles' e-newsletter.)

Monday, the senate introduced our "operating budget." Our Majority Leader, Sen. Lisa Brown, described it as “shared pain.” And, painful it is.

Our budget writers tried to spread the sacrifice so that this budget determines no winners or losers. While as our state reels from a national recession that has led to historic drops in state revenues, we have proposed a balanced budget that unfortunately stalls the progress we have made for our state’s workers, children and communities.

We introduced an all-cuts budget, as we know people across our state are cutting their own family budgets. However, I believe that this all-cuts budget cuts too deeply, so I am working with our leadership to present a tax package to the voters to provide some relief from these cuts.

The operating budget (some examples)

Basic Health Plan

The Basic Health Plan is the pay-as-you-go health insurance for Washingtonians who don’t receive health insurance through their employers. We are slashing our Basic Health Plan by 42 percent to maintain coverage for people under 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

This cut means that 42,000 middle class Washingtonians will no longer have state-subsidized, affordable health care.

I find this very concerning. Those without health insurance continue to face ailments and illness that only get more expensive when they are left with no option but to visit an Emergency Room, whose exorbitant costs are spread over the premiums paid by those with health insurance. Health care has been an increasingly important issue as premiums and drug costs continue an upward spiral that is unmanageable for too many in our state.

Education

Our children’s education will suffer under this budget. We tried to spare our K-12 system as much as possible. Because education comprises 40 percent of our budget, it is impossible for us to exclude K-12 education from cuts.

Thankfully, we have a partner in President Obama, and the proposed senate budget uses $1.36 billion in federal stimulus dollars to mitigate the impact of the state budget reductions. It’s estimated that the net reduction on school district funding will average about 3.5 percent.

To put this in context, the budget orders the Senate to reduce our own budget by 8 percent.

The biggest cuts are in the suspension of two-voter approved initiatives. In 2000, voters approved I-728 with 72 percent of the vote. This initiative provides extra money to reduce classroom sizes. We also suspended I-732 that requires the state to fund annual salary cost-of-living adjustments for all K-12 school district employees (not just teachers) and select employees of community and technical colleges.

We also reduced levy equalization by 75 percent. This money provides additional money to mitigate the impact that local school district levies can have on property poor school districts.

I have spent my life advocating for our students, and it is devastating to make any education reductions.

Higher education

I have been a college instructor for decades and am committed to ensuring affordable access and high quality in our state’s higher education system. Former Gov. Gary Locke described our colleges and universities as our state’s “great equalizer” – I couldn’t agree more.

Sadly, unlike our K-12 system, our higher education system is not constitutionally mandated so therefore its funding is not constitutionally protected. Our budget proposes a cut to the entire system by 14 percent – this equates to 10,500 fewer enrollments across our public higher education system.

This would have a devastating effect on students who are in university now and on those who hope to attend. I am working on making sure that these drastic cuts do not occur.

But as I wrote at the beginning, the budget writers did try to share the pain and part of that meant maximizing federal dollars. While I am deeply concerned about the essential programs that are facing drastic cuts, funding for some very important programs is maintained.

Early childhood education

While attending college, I worked part-time for a child care center. And for several years having been a single parent of five children, I know just how important our children’s early years are to build the foundation of successful, life-long learners.

Our Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) is our state funded pre-school program for families who fall within 110 percent of the federal poverty limit. The Senate’s all-cuts budget reduces this program’s slots by 2 percent for the next two years. Our budget writers mitigated this reduction by only making reductions in locations that are also served by Head Start as the state is expected to receive $10 million in federal head start funding.

Broadband funding

I’m very pleased that expanding our high-speed Internet structure is partially funded in this proposed budget so that we will be eligible to receive federal funds. For several years now, I have been committed to closing the digital divide that exists in our state between those with high-speed Internet access and those without.

My commitment to expanding broadband access reflects my efforts to enhance educational opportunities, access to high paying jobs, health care government, and community economic development – for all our residents.

There is little question that broadband access will change our lives in more ways than the invention of the television back in the 1950s. But it’s also about jobs now — when we need them most. It’s estimated that for every direct job involved in deploying broadband, four indirect jobs are created.

The construction budget

Wednesday we released our construction budget. At $3.3 billion, it’s 29 percent smaller than the 2007-2009 budget and nearly $700 million less than what Gov. Gregoire proposed months ago before revenues fell lower, but we managed to cover our most vital core needs while putting more Washingtonians back to work.

This capital budget is smaller for two reasons — our loss of revenue in the recession, and because we transferred $743 million in cash accounts to cover basic needs need in health and public safety in the operating budget. Without that transfer, we would have had to cut the operating budget by the equivalent of the entire Basic Health Program — on top of all our other cuts.

The capital budget covers all our K-12 construction commitments and our most critical higher education projects, including three new buildings crucial to our economic future: a molecular engineering building at the University of Washington ($53 million) and a global animal health building and a biomedical sciences facility at Washington State University ($115,686 million).

The budget also provides $115 million in bonds and $107 million in federal stimulus money in the form of grants to local government infrastructure projects.

Closures and Project Suspensions

The McNeil Island Corrections Center closes and its prisoners are transferred to less costly facilities (it costs $37,431 annually to house an offender at McNeil compared to $24,119 in our newer facilities).

New school district skills centers are not funded because of budget constraints.
The Heritage Center, which was intended to be built with revenue from state and local document fees, is put on hold while we explore ways to make sure the center can be fully funded as intended. The fees that would have funded this project have plummeted along with the economy.

Addressing our structural tax problem

Our historic revenue shortfall is forcing us to slash programs that are lifelines for many of our residents. This underscores the importance of tax reform in our state.

This can be attributed to our weakening economy our state’s overdependence on sales tax. Washington is only one of seven states in the country that does not impose a state income tax. More than half of the state’s operating budget is funded through the sales tax, making the budget vulnerable when consumer spending slows.

This week I introduced Senate Bill 6147 which would implement a 1 percent income tax on incomes of at least $500,000 annually for individuals, $1 million for spouses filing joint returns and $750,000 for single income households.

The revenues collected from this tax must be deposited in the Education Enrichment Account, created under this measure, to be used in support of the state’s public schools, colleges and universities.

My bill isn’t the cure-all for fixing today’s budget crisis, rather it’s about providing one way to help in the future from crippling our schools and colleges when our economy slows.

Senate passes transportation budget

This past week the senate passed a transportation budget that provides $4.3 billion in funding for over 400 projects all over the state using revenue sources that are kept separate from its operating and construction budgets. Funded primarily with our state’s gas taxes, these funds are constitutionally dedicated to building, maintaining and operating our state highway system — including the marine highways serviced by Washington State Ferries.

Transportation revenue and investment packages authorized by the legislature in 2003 and 2005 — and endorsed by citizens via the initiative process — are peaking at the very time when public investment in infrastructure is needed to bolster the sagging economy, and our proposed transportation budget takes advantage of this unique opportunity to help jump start the economy and create jobs.

Highways

We’re moving forward with important transportation projects that have regional and statewide significance, including:

I-405 Corridor Projects
I-90/Snoqualmie Pass East
SR 395 North Spokane Corridor
I-5/Tacoma HOV Improvements
SR 520/Bridge Replacement and HOV
SR 99/Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement

We’re also moving forward with hundreds of transportation projects all over the state that focus on making our highways safer and more efficient.

Public Transportation

During tough economic times, more and more people rely on public transportation, which is why senate democrats maintain prior legislative commitments to the Regional Mobility Grant program by fully funding the program at $40 million, and provide additional funding for the following programs:

Paratransit and special needs grants - including $25 million for competitive and formula grants for transportation for people with special needs. Funds go to transit agencies and nonprofit transportation providers of services such as for the elderly and people with disabilities;

Rural mobility grants - including $17 million for public transportation in and between rural communities. This flexible grant program helps rural communities serve people who rely on public transportation; and

Vanpool grant program – including $7 million for a vanpool grant program for public transit agencies to add vanpools or replace vans, and for incentives for employers to increase employee vanpool use.
Where do we go from here?

The house introduced its proposed operating budget Tuesday. It made deeper cuts in higher education than we did and raised tuition rates more, but made fewer cuts in K-12 education. Now, we must start the budget negotiations, all while drafting a tax package that can buy back some our essential services. You can find the budgets here and additional information here.

As we move forward in the budgeting process, I would like to hear from you. What programs are you unwilling to see reduced? Where do you think we can cut? Are you willing to pay more in taxes to offset some of these cuts? I’d appreciate your contacting my office with your suggestions.

Warmly,

Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles