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.)
March 16 , 2012 - Emily Makings
Senate Reforms: Education Funding
As I mentioned yesterday, the newly proposed Senate supplemental includes several reforms. These include SB 6618, which would repeal Initiatives 728 and 732. (The bill has seen no action in the legislature so far.)
March 15 , 2012 - Emily Makings
Highlights of the New Senate Supplemental Proposal
Today Senate Republicans, along with three Democrats, proposed a new 2012 supplemental budget. It would close the $1 billion remaining budget problem through a familiar formula of new revenue, fund transfers, and spending reductions. The proposal would leave reserves of $437.4 million (more than in the version that passed the House March 8, but less […]
March 13 , 2012 - Emily Makings
WSJ: "States Keep Axes Sharpened"
Yesterday marked the beginning of a special session of the legislature, in which legislators must balance the 2011-13 budget. In today’s Wall Street Journal, a reminder that Washington is not alone in this: State governments are confronting a combined $47 billion gap between projected revenue and costs for the fiscal year that starts in July, […]