EDITOR’S NOTE: A story about Gov. Chris Gregoire’s proposed state budget and an outline of proposed cutbacks can be accessed toward the bottom of the home page.
Gov. Chris Gregoire’s proposed slashing of more than $3 billion from funds affecting education, social services, prisons, health programs, state parks and perhaps the second ferry for the Port Townsend-Keystone route has Rep. Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, girding for a grueling session.
“It’s all ugly . . . the most brutal cuts are to human services, which local communities will have to absorb,” added the lawmaker, who’s entering her 11th year as House Majority Leader.
As a member of the House ways and means committee, Kessler will lead the Legislature’s creation of its own budget, revising the governor’s proposal — which is intended to fix a nearly $6 billion deficit over the next 2¬½ years — when the session begins Jan. 12.
When she heard that Bogachiel near Forks, Old Fort Townsend and Lake Sylvia near Montesano are among the 13 state parks slated for closure, Kessler said she’s glad the Legislature can dig into such revisions.
“We depend on those parks to attract visitors to our area,” said Kessler, whose 24th district covers Clallam, Jefferson and a portion of Grays Harbor counties.
And in the current recession, North Olympic Peninsula residents need places to recreate for free, she added.
Of Gregoire’s proposed cuts in funding for public schools, Kessler said that since education accounts for 55 percent of the state’s spending, “it would be hard to let it go unscathed.”
Some projects safe
Still in the budget is the widening of a 2.5-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 101 just west of Sequim. State money for that has been appropriated, Kessler said.
“That could be part of a [federal] stimulus package,” she added, since “President-elect Obama is looking for dirt-ready projects,” to fold into his $700 billion plan to overhaul the country’s infrastructure.
Also safe is the special ferry for commercial trucking between Port Townsend and Edmonds during the six-week period that the Hood Canal Bridge is scheduled to be closed next spring.
The span will shut down May 1 for replacement of its trusses and floating sections on the eastern half.
Ferry
Not in Gregoire’s budget, however, is a second Port Townsend-to-Keystone vehicle ferry.
The contract for one new 64-car ferry, which will replace the aging Steel Electrics that were pulled from service last year, was awarded to Todd Pacific Shipyards earlier this month by the state Department of Transportation.
Todd Pacific submitted a $65.5 million bid to build the ferry on an 18-month construction time line.
That money has been allocated, Kessler said, but money for a second ferry has not.
Kessler said she’ll continue to push for the added boat, “but within reason. These are not normal times. We may have to wait until the whole country turns around.”
Education
Public school district officials across the Peninsula are awaiting an evaluation by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to find out what the governor’s proposal could mean for them.
“The formulas are very complex, and all we are working with now is a summary,” Port Angeles Superintendent Gary Cohn said.
But no matter what, the news is not good, he and other superintendents said on Thursday.
“One thing in particular are the I-728 funds, which was a voter initiative to decrease class size,” Sequim Superintendent Bill Bentley said.
“Some of those funds are suspended, and we have several staff that we pay out of those funds.”
The cuts would be to funds to decrease class size in grades higher than fourth. A reduction in the funds would impact every district, but to what degree is uncertain until the state office runs figures through the formulas and determines who would receive what funds, Cohn said.
Rural districts
Levy equalization funds also are in danger. Cuts would affect rural districts.
The governor recommended that about $125 million be cut.
“We don’t know how that will translate to us,” Cape Flattery Superintendent Kandy Ritter said.
“Those funds are given to the school districts like ours that have a lower property tax base, so they subsidize that with the levy equalization dollars.”
Tom Opstad, Port Townsend superintendent, said he too awaits response from the state superintendent’s office.
“It will be a big hit, but it is nice that she left in the kindergarten through fourth grade [class size] enhancements, because if those had gone away, it would have been a double hit to those grade levels,” Opstad said.
Bentley said the proposed cuts were not unexpected.
“We took immediate steps to do everything we could to help soften the impact of this,” Bentley said. “Sequim has an extremely lean budget already in place.”
Port Angeles also has anticipated possible reductions.
For example, the district receives some levy equalization funds, Cohn said, but has not included the money in its budget.
“We have been planning on those funds going away for some time now,” Cohn said.
“We have been planning for it, but clearly cuts to schools of this magnitude can’t avoid hurting us.”
Social services
Gregoire’s budget cuts would slice out $339 monthly payments to people deemed unemployable from physical or mental disabilities, including drug or alcohol addictions.
“If that funding goes, I’m not sure how some people are going to live,” Kathy Wahto said Thursday.
Wahto is executive director of Serenity House, which shelters many of the people covered by the General Assistance Unemployable program for people who have less than $1,000 in resources.
Wahto had no statistic on how many GAU recipients live in Clallam and Jefferson counties. The population is often transient.
About 27,000 people statewide would be left without assistance, saving $160 million in the 2009-2011 biennium, according to Gregoire’s proposal.
Other health and human services programs would be hard hit.
Andy Brastad, Clallam County’s environmental health director, told the county board of health on Tuesday to brace for a $1.4 million cut statewide by June.
Small water utilities hit
Brastad — like other county officials waiting for the reductions to work their way to local levels — didn’t know precisely what programs might be cut.
However, he said Group B water systems, small utilities with two to 14 hookups, could expect less help from the state.
Iva Burks, Health and Human Services Department director, told the board that $7.1 million must be trimmed by June, according to state Secretary of Health Mary Selecky.
She said $500 million must be cut from state health spending in 2009, $1 billion for the biennium.
Selecky’s advice to rural counties, Burks said, was to do the least amount of harm and protect local health jurisdictions and assistance to tribes.
“Most of the things did not affect us directly here,” Burks said, referring to a recent meeting with Selecky.
“That’s the very good news.”
Burks said that by the time the Legislature had finished with the budget, cuts would be made in tobacco prevention and control programs, the Division of Substance and Alcohol Abuse and support systems for people with developmental disabilities.
In the wake of the governor’s proposed deep cuts, Kessler said that “all Americans are feeling the pinch.
“Everything’s on the table. I can’t say, ‘I’m going to just protect my district.’ But I am going to make sure it’s not devastating to my community . . . Let’s all try to keep our spirits up,” she said.
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Reporter Jim Casey can be reached at 360-417-3538 or at jim.casey@peninsuladailynews.com.
Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
Sequim Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
