By Chris Grygiel
From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
[In a special session of the State Legislature last Saturday, state representatives] addressed $588 million of the $1.1 billion deficit. The cuts they did make – including $50 million from public schools, $51 million from higher education, $28 million from the health insurance program for the needy and $48 million from the corrections department – are real and painful. But most of this was stuff Gregoire was going to do anyway. She’d announced across-the-board cuts before November’s bleak economic forecast.
More than a third of Saturday’s temporary solution comes from a budget trick – shifting about $200 million in federal money that was supposed to be used to maintain education jobs. That cash is now a one-time stop gap for this year’s budget – using it exacerbates the already dismal 2011-2013 budget.
The bill passed 86-6 in the State House of Representatives and 30-9 in the State Senate. (San Juans’ State Senator Kevin Ranker opposed the measure, see following statement).
To read the full article, go to /blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/archives/231518.asp
