Senate Releases Budget
At 10:30 this morning, Senate Democrats released their proposed 2009-2011 budget proposal. I watched the press conference on TVW as did, I imagine, thousands of others. While not exactly 24, it had an immediacy that the budget debate has lacked through much of this legislative session. That's because we were finally seeing the numbers. (Go to the Senate Ways and Means Committee web site to download documents.)
Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown said they were presenting an "honest and responsible budget that does balance our revenues and expenditures." It "does not eliminate the social safety net," she said, but does trim many social service programs. Higher education absorbs a more than $500 million hit. As well, K-12 programs that fall outside the definition of "basic education" were also cut. Initiative 728 and Initiative 732, class size reduction and cost-of-living raises for teachers, respectively, were suspended. Federal stimulus dollars were targeted to backfill much of the 728 cut. The budget summary says that "the net reduction in school district funding will average 3.5 percent."
As expected, there's no cost-of-living increase for any employees, and the annual "step increases" for management employees are suspended.
In addition to the federal stimulus money, the budget uses nearly $750 million in funds that usually go to the capital budget, $242 million in fund transfers, and $450 million in rainy day money. One analyst pegs the use of one-time money at $5 billion in total. I suspect that's about right. If so, under the slow-recovery scenario most envision, this budget still fails to come to grips with the state's need to reset spending to a sustainable level.
Although the Senate leaders said they had not yet decided on a tax package, most of us figure there's another shoe left to drop. Just a few minutes ago, Sen. Brown put up a post suggesting it's time to talk about an income tax.
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