Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Governor Gregoire Book 1 Budget Release Tomorrow

Governor Chris Gregoire is scheduled to release her statutorily required no-new-revenues 2010 supplemental operating budget proposal Wednesday morning this week at a 9:00 am press conference.

The Governor’s Health and Human Services Budget and Policy team will provide a preview of the major components of the health and human services portions of the budget at 8:00 am in the Columbia Room in the Legislative Building on the Capitol Campus in Olympia.

All of the budget documents will be available on-line through the Office of Financial Management website (http://www.ofm.wa.gov) following the Governor’s 9:00 am press conference.

It is clear that this budget will contain devastating cuts to all state services. The Governor is required under the law to produce a balanced budget. Absent a revenue generation effort, the citizens of Washington state and those of us who work to provide those services face a very bleak future. The Governor, the legislature and all of us must do everything possible to prevent the potential damage to our state programs and our state citizens.

Please contact April Sims at www.wfse.org to find out what you can do to prevent this harm. Don't wait - act today.

2 comments:

Oneoftheguys said...

It is possible that I have missed something or that you have information I don't yet have. I received a mailing from the union asking me to contact my legislators and ask them to support a Book 2 budget that: generates new revenue; suspends targeted tax breaks; and asks us where to find common sense efficiencies. While I am willing to contact my legislators I would like to read the Book 2 budget before I make those calls. I have not seen it. Can you tell me where I can get a copy? If it has not yet been released how can you ask us to support a budget we have not read?

Carol Dotlich said...

To Oneof the guys: The Governor has stated that she intends to produce a Book 2 budget that will close some tax loopholes and generate some revenue. Given a choice between Book 1 and Book 2 - the second is better. Understanding your point of view about wanting to see it before you support it, calls to legislators now are still productive to let them know right now that these Book 1 cuts are unacceptable.