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Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO
a weekly report on the 2003 session  (Previous editions)

FRIDAY, APRIL 4  (download and print a PDF version)
Senate OKs class-warfare budget

Thanks a lot, Governor.

This week's debate on the Senate Republicans' proposed budget underscored what an incredible disservice Gov. Gary Locke did to the people of this state when he proposed—and then defended—his devastating all-cuts budget.  After 120, we lost count of the number of times his name was invoked by Republicans defending their most heinous budget cuts: "We did better than the Governor...," "Like the Governor's budget...," etc.  A press briefing by their chief budget writer, Sen. Dino Rossi (R-Sammamish), featured a presentation entitled "Following the Governor's Lead."

That refrain continued today during Senate floor action on the budget, which this afternoon passed without significant amendment on a 28-20 vote.  Democratic Sens. Aaron Reardon, Marilyn Rasmussen, Jim Hargrove and Tim Sheldon joined all Republicans in voting "yes."

Saying this Senate budget is better than the Governor's has been described as damning with faint praise.  We say the word "praise" has no place in its description. Both budgets are indefensible attacks on working-class people.  They continue to bestow Washington's corporate special interests with extended (and brand new!) special tax breaks even as they kick children in poor families off Medicaid.

Some have defended Locke by saying he had no choice; he cannot assume new revenue with his proposal.  That's true, and in fact he has since said he would change parts of it to mitigate the damage.  But what he should have done is point to that first sorry proposal and say, "this is how bad it will be if we don't find new revenue, and it is unacceptable."  Then he could've offered a "Book 2" plan reflecting the interests and priorities of the Democratic Party.

Instead, after receiving acclaim from Republicans, corporate lobbyists and the likes of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation for his Priorities (Price) of Government process, he has continued to defend his budget.  In doing so, he has helped inoculate Republicans from criticism for the anti-worker, anti-government budget we would expect from them; the kind of budget an extreme Republican governor would propose, if they could elect one.  (The right-wing radio host who mustered 39% of the gubernatorial vote in 2004 has nothing but good things to say about Locke's priorities.)

The reason Republicans can't get a governor elected is because their priorities—anti-worker and anti-environment deregulation, tax breaks for business, cutting social welfare programs and lowering taxes, consequences be damned—do not reflect the priorities of the people of Washington state.

It may serve little purpose to pile on Gov. Locke when, at this point, the problem is Senators who are attacking low-income working-class people and rewarding corporate interests.  It should suffice to say that defending their budget as better than Locke's may let them off the hook with the commercial press, but it won't with the people of Washington.

Here are few of the lowlights:

ATTACK POOR CHILDREN.  How did Senators come up with the money to "improve" on Locke's budget and stave off some of his proposed cuts?  Principally by lopping an estimated 46,000 children off of Medicaid.  They propose to cut the maximum family income from 250% of the federal poverty level to 175%, saving about $100 million.  Rather than defend that cut's devastating impact, like children trying to divert their parents' attention from their offending behavior, Republicans say other states have done it.  Well, if other states jumped off a bridge...

Governor Locke, we must report, has issued a statement saying he's "troubled" by this new cut.  Of course, he goes on to "compliment the Senate Republicans for unveiling their proposed state operating budget and adopting our Priorities of Government approach."

While the governor awaited word on his POG patent application, Senate Democrats were attempting to protect children's health care with budget amendments.  They argued not only is this an unconscionable cut, it makes no fiscal sense because our state loses out on federal matching funds.  If some of this funding were restored, that investment would immediately return 100-150% in matching federal dollars. Their efforts were rejected on party-line votes.

ATTACK STATE EMPLOYEES.  You might have read the GOP budget makes up about $1 billion of the $2.6 billion projected shortfall by freezing the wages of state employees and teachers.  That's not true.  The ones that don't get laid off—there are 2,500 state employee job cuts in the plan—will get a pay cut.  Higher health insurance premiums and co-pays will cost the average state employee $1,000 a year.

Combined with last year’s budget, the GOP budget would mean $350 million will have been taken from state employees in terms of no pay raises and higher health costs, estimates the Washington Federation of State Employees.

"We don’t know what we’ve done to have $350 million taken out of our paychecks to fund the budget deficits," testified one WFSE lobbyist.  "It’s been said that government should be run like a business and we wish it was true because we don’t think any viable business would treat its most important human resource, human capital, this poorly."

ATTACK "PERPETUAL PATHETICS."  Look, we lack the space here to list everybody who gets attacked by the Senate budget.  So we'll let Senate Majority Leader Jim West (R-Spokane) sum that up.  He says the social service and public employee advocates critical of his budget "are the perpetual pathetics. They’re always here whining."

That must include his mother's home care worker.  Today a letter by her was circulated asking State Senators to fund the Home Care Quality Authority contract.  They didn't.

So, what are some of the Priorities of Government™ that rank higher than health care for poor children, state employees, schools and home care workers?  Glad you asked.

REWARD MICROSOFT AND LABOR READY.  The Senate budget includes $116 million in new and extended tax breaks for Microsoft and other businesses, including a jaw-dropping new $20 million break for temporary staffing agencies like Labor Ready.  This supplements the 430 tax exemptions already on the books costing some $13 billion in deferred revenue.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gave a speech Tuesday appealing for higher education funding, saying 2,000 company jobs will go wanting for lack of qualified applicants.  But his company lobbyists, like those of every other major corporation in this state, have successfully convinced Republican lawmakers to extend research-and-development tax credits that, according to a Department of Revenue study, generate about one job for every $500,000 in lost revenue.  This alone will cost the state $75 million in this biennium and $213 million in the next.  How many community college slots do you think that money could open up, Steve?

That, in a nutshell, is the problem these days.

Corporate lobbyists (that no one from either party would ever, EVER call "pathetic whiners") demand much from our government in terms of roads, schools and other important services, but at the same time they fight to defund government and further reduce their tax burden.  On Wednesday, the Washington Roundtable, representing 40 CEOs around the state, endorsed the Senate Republicans' all-cuts budget replete with new business tax breaks.

Corporate executives can give all the speeches they want about funding higher education and transportation, but their bottom line is their bottom line.  They don't want to pay for it, they want YOU to.

Tellingly, the chair of the Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee for the Association of Washington Business is a guy from Deloitte & Touche, a giant accounting firm investigated by Congress for selling corporate tax-avoidance advice that pushes legal boundaries—and for helping Enron, among others, avoid paying any federal taxes 1996-99.  He may be a nice guy, coach his kid's Little League team and throw great parties, but he deserves exactly as much influence over how our state government is run as you or I do.  Maybe less.

Instead, he and his corporate buddies are invited by our Democratic governor and Republican legislators to help write the people's budget and determine our priorities.  Business was, after all, the only constituency invited to the table for the Priorities of Government™ exercise, and every single bill affecting workers in this state is being measured against the stick established by their Competitiveness Council.

It's time for lawmakers to tell them where to put that stick and declare a moratorium on business tax breaks.  That's what we call spreading the pain.

AWB: Creating jobs for the good of humanity

Speaking of the AWB, its marketing department was working overtime this week.  Hot off the success of its JobMakers vs. JobKillers literature/website comes this week's effort to push the AWB's "Final Four" priority bills.  They handed out mini-basketballs (ones that apparently were real JobMakers... IN CHINA) and sought support for cutting injured worker benefits, cutting unemployment benefits, cutting people's rights to sue for damages and allowing a new, cheaper kind of skeletal health plan for workers.

Who are these jokers anyway?  One could be excused for mistaking the AWB for a public employment service or some kind of charitable job-distributing organization.  Its literature claims "more than 3,700 job-providing members" and aims to "encourage the creation of private sector jobs."

This perpetual focus on jobs is intended to make their agenda seem altruistic and in the public's best interest.  It just doesn't sound as good to say "we want to help our clients make more money."  In truth, AWB is simply a business lobbying group, the state's Chamber of Commerce.  It has no interest in supporting good government, social services or any other public program not utilized by its member businesses.

And its members create exactly as many jobs as are absolutely necessary for them to make a profit, and not one more.  If Boeing could make airplanes, Microsoft could make software and Starbucks could make coffee without creating jobs or paying employees, do ya think they'd do it?

Actually, Boeing is trying to find out.  This week the company formally opened the bidding between states to see which will best subsidize the manufacture of the 7E7.  They say if they don't get what they want, they may build them overseas.

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PREVIOUS EDITIONS of the WSLC Legislative Update:

March 28 -- All-cuts budget alarms voters; plus transportation proposals and election bills
March 21 -- Paying a price for neglect (re" Home care workers' contract; plus a bill roundup)
March 14 -- Job-Killing Bulls--- (re: Olympia rhetoric that pro-workers bills are all "job killers")
March 7 -- What a Difference a House Makes
Feb. 21 -- Workplace safety in jeopardy (re: BIAW ergo initiative, blocking WISHA inspections)
Feb. 14 -- MORE business tax breaks?!  (re: digging a deeper budget hole with no accountability)
Feb. 7 -- Commerce and ANTI-Labor? (re: workers' comp, minimum wage and transportation)
Feb. 3 -- Now is the time... to pay less? (re: workers' comp and minimum wage)
Jan. 24 -- Drug bill off to a strong start; competagogues go after ergonomics rule again
Jan. 17 -- It's the Economy, Stupid!  (re: "competagogues" and Washington's business environment)
Jan. 10 -- A Question of Priorities  (re: explosion of corporate influence on government)

Copyright © 2003  Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO