Governor Gregoire’s Budget Cut Message to State Employees

Governor Christine Gregoire issued the following statement on Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010:

Today I will present a balanced budget for the coming biennium that addresses our $4.6 billion shortfall.  It is not a budget I ever imagined I would have to present.  Making the decisions we did were some of the toughest challenges I’ve ever faced.

With numbers of this size, it’s important to have perspective.  A full 60 percent of our state budget is constitutionally protected and off-limits to cuts.  Of the remaining 40 percent, or $14 billion, we must cut $4.6 billion.  That’s a significant challenge.  Meeting that number, especially after two years of cutting, is no small task.  We could eliminate our entire community college system and not bridge the gap.  We could close every prison and not bridge the gap.  We could lay off every single state employee, and we would not bridge the gap.

We’ve had to reach for transformative and new ideas.  And we’ve had to cut.

We prioritized the values we share – education, health care, safety, economic opportunity, the environment and efficient government.  And to protect those core services we’ve had to reduce or eliminate programs, services and agencies.

Quite simply, we’ve had to cut the unthinkable to prevent the unbearable.

We cut important services to keep essential ones.

We value education, but will have to make cuts in teacher positions, early learning for three-year olds, and class size reduction.

We value health care and social services but are forced to eliminate the Basic Health Plan, Disability Lifeline, and the Children’s Health Program.  We have to eliminate food stamps for 14,100 people.

In public safety we eliminate McNeil Island Corrections Center and Maple Lane School.

We will cut ferry runs from 505 a day to 477.

We cut general fund support to our state parks and will ask them to rely on user fees.

These decisions, as bad as they are, preserve other more critical services.

We will keep early learning for over 7,300 four-year-olds and the State Need Grant to open the doors for 70,000 low income students to get a college degree.

We will maintain a safety net for abused and neglected children, our developmentally disabled, the elderly and the mentally ill.

We keep State Patrol Troopers on the road and maintain our correctional system.

We will also continue to transform government to save and maximize important dollars.  We will ask users of water rights and natural resources permits to pick up the cost of those programs.  We ask the adult family home industry to pay their full licensing fees saving $6 million.  We will put up for sale twelve state properties valued at $86 million.

I’ve also asked state employees for help.  I have made it clear that state employees were not responsible for this crisis and that you should not bear the full burden of solving it.  Since this crisis began you’ve stepped up to the plate with no cost-of-living increases, you’ve experienced furloughs and more than 8,200 positions have been eliminated.  In labor negotiations we asked employees to again step up, with tentative agreements reached including a pay reduction of 3% in the next biennium saving $330 million across all funds.  That 3% reduction is reduced work of 5.2 hours per month—how each agency will determine how those hours are taken will be flexible.  I thank you, and am grateful, for your sacrifice.

In that same spirit, I, and all statewide elected officials have asked the commission that sets our salary to give us an equal decrease in pay.

I’m attaching a copy of the remarks from today’s press conference as well as a link to our budget documents here.  I encourage you take the time to read this information and inform yourself.  As we face these significant challenges, we all must continue to work together and share in the sacrifice. We will get through this great recession. We can do it together.

You can find all information from today’s announcement here: https://www.governor.wa.gov/priorities/budget/press_packet.pdf

Thanks,
Chris

As always, I welcome your response, feedback, and suggestions. https://www.governor.wa.gov/contact/default.asp