Cutting the Cost of Government

Lawmakers have reduced and will continue to reduce the cost of government

It’s important to remember that, even as the Legislature wrestles with making new budget cuts, it slashed $3.6 billion in services from the budget last year.

Washington was extremely fortunate to receive considerable help from the federal government in addressing our overall budget hole. Even still, the budget we passed last year spends a billion dollars less in state revenue than the previous two-year budget.

This document gives you good perspective on how the Legislature balanced the state budget last year, and on what has transpired since then that has put the state in a deficit position again. 

While most of last year’s cuts came in the form of valued programs and services, more than $1 billion was saved through administrative cuts that affect real people.

Some $800 million in teacher and state employee compensation was wiped out and the Legislature asked state workers who were due already-negotiated competitive salary adjustments to accept a pay freeze. Some $200 million in health insurance costs were eliminated and state workers mere made to contribute much more out-of-pocket in deductibles, co-pays, and point-of-service charges.

We instituted furloughs for state employees, asking them to shorten the number of hours they work – a step which through Dec. 31 has resulted in almost 23,000 hours in unpaid leave. We cut over 3,000 state positions, and the Governor’s budget this year calls for an additional 1,500 more.

In beginning to tackle the state’s recession-fueled budget crisis, the Senate cut its own budget first. And when it comes to unpaid furloughs, the Legislature is leading the way.

In fact, 62 percent of all furlough hours taken last year by state employees were taken by employees of the Legislature. That’s despite the fact the House and Senate make up less than 1 percent of government employment.

It’s also worth noting that, since the 1989-91 biennium, the Senate staff has shrunk by more than 19 percent. The House staff has been reduced by almost 17 percent in that time.

There are, without question, more steps we can take to cut costs even more. But remember that as the Legislature starts slicing up its budget pie once again, the pie itself has become smaller than last year. And that makes new cuts increasingly harder to identify.

Nothing illustrates that more than the cuts that were enacted to core programs and services. Hundreds of millions were slashed that once provided health care to the working poor, financial support to poor school districts, enrollment slots in our colleges and universities and funding to reduce class sizes. All these and many, many more were exceptionally difficult to cut – and many of their effects have yet to be felt because they’re just now being implemented.

And this year, our continuing budget problem puts more of these kinds of cuts back on the table yet again.