New Brief: Legislature Closes the 2011-13 Budget Gap, At Last
Our overview of the 2012 supplemental passed by the legislature last week is here. Future briefs will focus on the reforms that were passed as part of the compromise, and readers should keep in mind that the governor will not act on the budget bill until May 2 (so the numbers are still in flux). […]
April 11 , 2012 - Emily Makings
Policy Changes in the Supplemental Budget
Earlier today, Dick wrote about the newly-enacted supplemental budget. Policy level reductions in the bill total $295 million–smaller than all previous proposals except the one the House passed March 8, which would have reduced policy level spending by $293 million (after adjusting to remove the effect of the school apportionment shift). The enacted bill reduces […]
April 06 , 2012 - Emily Makings
Housekeeping Note: New RSS Feeds
We have added new ways to access our work. In addition to this blog, Twitter, and Facebook, you may now subscribe to several RSS feeds. You may subscribe, for example, to all of our publications, or you may pick only the topics that interest you. We also have feeds for columns written by our president, […]
April 04 , 2012 - Emily Makings
New House Supplemental Proposal
The latest supplemental proposal is a striking amendment from Rep. Hunter. There’s a lot more of the same (this is the fifth different supplemental proposal): fund transfers, new revenue, spending reductions. In the two supplementals the House has already passed (2/29 and 3/8), a one-day delay in school apportionment payments was included, as a way […]
April 03 , 2012 - Emily Makings
Budgets & Accounting
In a post at the New York Times' Economix blog, Bruce Bartlett discusses a recent staff discussion note from the International Monetary Fund: "Accounting Devices and Fiscal Illusions." It is about the budget tricks or gimmicks or stratagems that governments use to get around cutting spending or raising taxes. Or, as the discussion note puts […]
March 18 , 2012 - Emily Makings
Senate Reforms: Restructuring State Government
The last structural budget reform proposal from the Senate proposed supplemental is to create a commission focused on the restructure of state government. ESSB 6345 would establish the Agency Reallocation and Realignment of Washington (ARROW) commission.
March 18 , 2012 - Emily Makings
Senate Reforms: Balanced Budgets
Another of the reforms included in the Senate supplemental budget proposal is ESJR 8222, which would amend the constitution to require balanced budgets. It was passed by the Senate February 13, by a vote of 36-12. As the bill report mentions, The state Budget and Accounting Act requires the Governor to submit to the Legislature […]
March 18 , 2012 - Emily Makings
Senate Reforms: State Debt Limit
The Senate 2012 supplemental proposal includes a constitutional amendment that would change the state debt limit. ESJR 8221, which passed the Senate by a vote of 41-7 on March 5, would first change the calculation of the state debt limit so that it is based on six years of general state revenues. (The constitutional limit […]
March 16 , 2012 - Emily Makings
Senate Reforms: Public Employee Retirement
The Senate 2012 supplemental proposal would make changes to public employee retirement plans. ESB 6378 passed the Senate March 3, by a vote of 25-24. It would close Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS), School Employees’ Retirement System (SERS), and Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) Plans 2 to new entrants as of July 1, 2012. It would […]
March 16 , 2012 - Emily Makings
Senate Reforms: Consolidated School Employee Benefits
Another of the reforms in the Senate’s proposed 2012 supplemental is SSB 6442, which would establish a consolidated purchasing system for public school employee health benefits. (It was passed by the Senate Ways and Means Committee Feb. 23.)