A policy brief from last week, So Close and Yet So Far Away, gave an overview of the spending plans and balance sheets of the House- and Senate-passed 2011-13 budgets.  It also promised more details on a few key budget areas.

The first of these additional briefs provides a comparison of spending on human services in each budget.  Human services is the second largest budget area (after public schools).  Maintenance level changes would increase spending over 2009-11 by $2.6 billion, but both budgets make policy reductions of over $1.3 billion.  Many of the reductions go to the Health Care Authority, Department of Corrections, and DSHS’ long term care, economic services administration, and medical assistance payments.