Jolt
Afternoon Jolt: Republican Budget Leader, Alexander, Refuses to Sign Budget Deal, Criticizes GOP Colleague for Compromising.
Today's (sore) loser: State Rep. Gary Alexander (R-20).
While the other three budget leaders in the legislature---House Ways and Means chair Ross Hunter (D-48), Senate Ways and Means chair Ed Murray (D-43), and Senate Ways and Means ranking Republican Joseph Zarelli (R-18), signed the big-deal supplemental budget conference report today, Alexander, the ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means committee, did not.
Alexander has been clear with his colleagues all along that he would not support the budget report if it includes retroactive cuts to K-4 classroom funding (it does, to the tune of a $25 million take back); if programs like the basic health plan and the disability lifeline (which he says need to be cut anyway in the next budget) were put on temporary "life support" (they were); and if it included "gimmicks" such as a three-percent pay cut for non-union state employees, that won't, his staff said, pass muster in the final version.
Alexander's camp says he will speak out on the House floor tomorrow to express his concerns.
UPDATE: This post was based on a conversation with Alexander's staff. Jolt has since spoken with Alexander, who tweaked what his staff said and added more substance to his position.
"It would have been disingenuous for me to [sign] a conference report I didn't support and I wasn't involved in writing," Alexander told PubliCola.
Alexander said he believes there was an initial agreement when budget leaders set out to deal with the $1.1 billion shortfall that they would not hit the K-4 class size funding by retroactively cutting money that had already been committed. And he says he made his position clear when the leaders met two and half weeks ago that he would not give on that issue. Instead, he says, he proposed using end of the year reserves to prevent the $25 million retroactive cut.
Alexander says that his counterparts also lost him by partially restoring the cash stipend to the disability lifeline---which was, however, cut by 42 percent. (He was okay with the health benefit portion, but believes the lifeline stipend should go.)
As for the Basic Health Plan, Alexander says he's fine with the tightened requirement—lowering the eligibility cut off to 133 percent of poverty as opposed to 200 percent. That is, he says, what he initially recommended.
Alexander grouses that he was ultimately "not included" in the budget discussions.
Asked if he spoke with his colleagues about his disappointment and his decision not to sign, he says he met with all of them individually to tell them.
He mocked his Republican colleague Zarelli for compromising. "Joe tells the press the budget is 'too little too late,' but he still signed on. I could not sign a conference report that didn't reflect my values or the values of my caucus."
He adds, "Joe figures if he's a player now, he'll get to be a player the next time [in the 2011-2013 budget talks]."
Today's winner: State House Minority Leader Rep. Richard DeBolt (R-20).
Rep. Marko Liias' bill to phase out the TransAlta coal plant in Centralia (DeBolt works for TransAlta when he isn't in the legislature and has long opposed any legislation that could impact the plant) didn't make the house cutoff. Republicans, following DeBolt's lead, complained that Liias' 2020 decommissioning plan would devastate the Centralia community with job losses (300 people work at the plant, which also happens to be the biggest single-point source of greenhouse gases in the state).
DeBolt shouldn't get cocky, though: There's a senate version sponsored by Sen. Phil Rockefeller (D-23), which has until Monday to make it out of committee.
While the other three budget leaders in the legislature---House Ways and Means chair Ross Hunter (D-48), Senate Ways and Means chair Ed Murray (D-43), and Senate Ways and Means ranking Republican Joseph Zarelli (R-18), signed the big-deal supplemental budget conference report today, Alexander, the ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means committee, did not.
Alexander has been clear with his colleagues all along that he would not support the budget report if it includes retroactive cuts to K-4 classroom funding (it does, to the tune of a $25 million take back); if programs like the basic health plan and the disability lifeline (which he says need to be cut anyway in the next budget) were put on temporary "life support" (they were); and if it included "gimmicks" such as a three-percent pay cut for non-union state employees, that won't, his staff said, pass muster in the final version.
Alexander's camp says he will speak out on the House floor tomorrow to express his concerns.
UPDATE: This post was based on a conversation with Alexander's staff. Jolt has since spoken with Alexander, who tweaked what his staff said and added more substance to his position.
"It would have been disingenuous for me to [sign] a conference report I didn't support and I wasn't involved in writing," Alexander told PubliCola.
Alexander said he believes there was an initial agreement when budget leaders set out to deal with the $1.1 billion shortfall that they would not hit the K-4 class size funding by retroactively cutting money that had already been committed. And he says he made his position clear when the leaders met two and half weeks ago that he would not give on that issue. Instead, he says, he proposed using end of the year reserves to prevent the $25 million retroactive cut.
Alexander says that his counterparts also lost him by partially restoring the cash stipend to the disability lifeline---which was, however, cut by 42 percent. (He was okay with the health benefit portion, but believes the lifeline stipend should go.)
As for the Basic Health Plan, Alexander says he's fine with the tightened requirement—lowering the eligibility cut off to 133 percent of poverty as opposed to 200 percent. That is, he says, what he initially recommended.
Alexander grouses that he was ultimately "not included" in the budget discussions.
Asked if he spoke with his colleagues about his disappointment and his decision not to sign, he says he met with all of them individually to tell them.
He mocked his Republican colleague Zarelli for compromising. "Joe tells the press the budget is 'too little too late,' but he still signed on. I could not sign a conference report that didn't reflect my values or the values of my caucus."
He adds, "Joe figures if he's a player now, he'll get to be a player the next time [in the 2011-2013 budget talks]."
Today's winner: State House Minority Leader Rep. Richard DeBolt (R-20).
Rep. Marko Liias' bill to phase out the TransAlta coal plant in Centralia (DeBolt works for TransAlta when he isn't in the legislature and has long opposed any legislation that could impact the plant) didn't make the house cutoff. Republicans, following DeBolt's lead, complained that Liias' 2020 decommissioning plan would devastate the Centralia community with job losses (300 people work at the plant, which also happens to be the biggest single-point source of greenhouse gases in the state).
DeBolt shouldn't get cocky, though: There's a senate version sponsored by Sen. Phil Rockefeller (D-23), which has until Monday to make it out of committee.
