BY Joseph Turner
joe.turner@thenewstribune.com

Key state lawmakers are working on a plan to let thousands of inmates out of prison 30 to 60 days early to help chop $100 million in spending from the state budget and to close the McNeil Island Corrections Center.

“I can’t give you the exact specifics,” Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, said late Friday. Hargrove is chairman of the Senate Human Services and Corrections Committee.

Hargrove wants to close the McNeil Island prison, a ferry ride from Steilacoom in Pierce County, and move its 1,300 inmates to other prisons across the state. To do that, he needs to make room for them because the state already is pretty much full up and still has about 800 inmates serving their time out of state.

He also wants to bring back the inmates who are now in private prisons in Arizona, Minnesota and Oklahoma by mid-2011, most likely sooner.

The question is, how much should prison sentences be shortened, and which inmates should get the “get out of jail free” cards.

“We’re looking at something that is very broad and very shallow, maybe 30 days,” Hargrove said. That means any cut will be a small amount, but it will apply to many, many inmates.

=> Read more!

Josh Feit over at Publicola has a few observations about unions whose members, although not state workers, are employed because of state funding.

That would be the WEA and SEIU. The Washington Education Association represents about 82,000 teachers and other public school employees. The Service Employees International Union 775NW represents about 25,000 to 30,000 home care workers.

I'm providing a link for 2 reasons:

1. These two unions also are deeply involved in planning for a tax vote this summer or fall.

2. The SEIU and Washington State Budget and Policy Center both are running ads on the Publicola blog. First time I'd seen that. The policy center is a left-leaning think tank. And the union is, well, a union. Its ad is "don't let 6,000 workers lose their health benefits."

There is a theme to these three most recent blog posts: Each of the groups will somehow be involved in the campaign to win voter approval for a tax increase, if not kicking in money then at least providing foot soldiers for the door-to-door or get-out-the-vote part of the campaign.

Kids helped, but not held harmless, in House budget proposal

Raising new revenue must be the next step

March 31, 2009—Like the Senate budget proposal released yesterday, the House budget proposal includes some good investments in children and families, but in the current economic environment kids aren’t fully protected.

“We appreciate that the House, like the Senate, protected some important investments in children, including funding for children’s health coverage, home visiting programs, school meals and reducing disproportionality in the foster care system. Yet we know demand is going up as the economy worsens and both chambers of the legislature also cut programs that we know children and families will need to help them get through these tough times,” said Paola Maranan, Executive Director of the Children’s Alliance.

=> Read more!

The figure of 7,000 layoffs is what we reporters used when talking about the Senate's proposed operating budget for 2009-11, but that's only because we pressed them to give us a number. The House would not even venture a guess.

Truth is, nobody knows. Likewise, we don't know how many fewer students will be enrolled in colleges, either.

The Legislature is proposing funding cuts, but it's up to the school districts and the individual colleges to decide (mostly) where to make those cuts. Those cuts are bound to include layoffs. But schools get money from local property taxes, and that can be used to mitigate some of the state spending cuts.

Likewise, the universities are going to get authority to raise tuition by 7, 10 or 14 percent, so they won't necessarily lay off as many workers as they otherwise would have.

Anyway, here's one take on the proposed budgets and how they might affect education. The League of Education Voters is one of the groups that pushed passage of I-728, a measure that made the state boost funding to schools. I-728 would be pretty much gutted by a budget that seeks to fill a $9 billion shortfall.

March 31, 2009

Dear Joe,
Washington’s schools, like families, have been tightening their budgets, while doing everything they can to ensure kids continue to grow and thrive.

This week, the Senate and House released their 2009-2011 budget proposals, which close a $9 billion shortfall with cuts and federal stimulus dollars. Although legislators prioritized children and education, both budgets would cut early learning, public schools and higher education by more than $1.3 billion.

=> Read more!

The Community Health Network of Washington is one of the groups that would take a huge cut in the 2009-11 state budget -- directly or indirectly it would be about $300 million plus. (The clinics provide services to some of the people who will be losing coverage.) That's one reason they are one of the groups working on a possible tax package for the ballot.

I haven't had a chance to find out where they got the 14,000 figure for a 'waiting list,' but it seems probably in light of the cuts ordered by the governor and how things are shaping up in the Legislature.

Basic Health is state subsidized coverage. There were 106,000 enrolled in the program last month, but it's declining. I don't think there are many adults enrolled in the program any more. It's mostly coverage for kids of the working poor. You know, mom works at Wal-Mart, her kids get coverage.

Anyway, read on. I'll be posting some of these budget glances from time to time.

Hi Joe,

We learned this morning that there are now almost 14,000 people on the wait list for Basic Health, although Health Care Authority has not yet started calling it a wait list.

There are over 600,000 people (climbing quickly) in Washington whose income qualifies them for Basic Health, but the number of slots has been shrinking since the Governor called for an immediate 7000 slot cut in December. The program is now at risk of cut by between 42,000 (House) and 75,000 (Senate) additional slots. While the Senate says they can maintain the program at 60,000 slots, we are still trying to get someone who can answer the following math question:

* Basic Health has a ~$600m biennial budget
* Senate cuts $250 million
* Senate eliminates another $182m in state funds and replaces it with temporary federal stimulus funds (which are distinct from the FMAP funds that must got to Medicaid
* $250+182 = $432m in state funding gone; $158 in state funding left.
* This means 26% of the state funding remains and it can fund 60% of the slots on an ongoing basis? This makes no sense.

From what we can tell these unrestricted federal funds would run out in December 2010, just like the FMAP funds. Regardless of when they run out, the story is still the same: the Senate took flexible federal funds and rather than use them to fund something else, they made the conscious decision to use them to supplant Basic Health funding. Where did the BH funds go? We would never get those back and Basic Health would start the following biennium at about the quarter of the size it is today.

Thanks.

Rebecca Kavoussi
Asst. Vice President of Government Affairs
Community Health Network of Washington / Community Health Plan