In the spirit of moving on, we’ll resist the temptation to point a finger back toward what Representative Brendan Williams calls the “Bill for Political Cowardice” about revenue and the “immoral all-cuts budget last session.”  What’s done is done.

So yesterday Governor Gregoire released her required “Book One” all-cuts supplemental budget and then immediately began denouncing it.  This time, with state services on the verge of completely disappearing, taxes are on the table.   

The governor’s budget proposes using $900 million from the “rainy day” fund (the real rainy day fund this time, not the universities as rainy day fund) and cutting about $1.7 billion from state services to cover the current $2.6 billion deficit.  In the press conference following the budget release, the governor said she would like to buy back some of those cuts with about $700 million in new taxes.  That still leaves about a billion dollars in cuts.  So if you’re a Washington citizen looking for human services or an education, you’re not out of the woods yet. 

The proposed new cuts to higher education come in two forms: a dramatic reduction to the State Need Grant and substantial cuts to university and college operating budgets.  The $146.4 million slice off the Need Grant would kick about 12,300 students out of the program and reduce the payment to those left by about 50%.  In her press conference, the governor specifically mentioned this program as one she wanted to buy back with new revenues. 

She did not, however, say anything about trying to reduce the cuts to the institutions where students might use those need grants.  So we’re looking at $89.5 million in cuts to our universities and community and technical colleges. 

At first glance, the cuts seem to be divided more or less equally between the two sectors: $45.9 million to the universities and $43.6 million to the community and technical colleges.  But it’s important to remember that this split is being imposed on a base that was wildly skewed in last year’s budget (O.K., maybe we’ll take just one quick look back at last year’s legislative session).  The cuts to four-year higher ed state appropriations were as deep as almost any state agency, while the cuts to community and technical colleges were about a quarter of the cuts to the universities:

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It is also important to note that the maintenance-of-effort rules required for last year’s stimulus funding would have limited Governor Gregoire’s cut to higher education to $78 million, which, in a 50-50 split, would have been $39 million to the universities.  But adding $11.5 million in new Worker Retraining spending to the CTCs, the Governor’s budget proposal can then make the cut to higher ed that much higher.  So, while the proposal looks like pain shared between the CTCs and the universities, the alchemy of stimulus rules plus “new spending” plus cuts equals a shift of about $7 million in cuts from the CTCs to the universities.  Here’s hoping that there will actually be jobs for all those retrained workers when they leave those programs.

 As always here at the blog, the point of all this is not to disrespect or denigrate our dedicated and hard-working sisters and brothers at the community and technical colleges.  Like every other state worker at every other state agency, they are struggling to keep this recession from destroying the state. 

The point is that Governor Gregoire’s proposed budget, in keeping with a long tradition in Washington State, has once again chosen training over education.  Washington’s six public universities will be made more private and Washington’s citizens will continue to bump up against an even more impenetrable education system and economic ceiling.