This Washington
Rep. Ross Hunter Says Focus on State Employees Contract is Wrong Approach
Disagreements between Democratic and Republican budget leaders emerged immediately after today's revenue forecast as the four budget heads—Democratic ways and means chairs, Sen. Ed Murray (D-43) and Rep. Ross Hunter (D-48), and Republican ranking ways and means member Sen. Joe Zarelli (R-18) and assistant ranking member Rep. Ed Orcutt (R-18)—stayed to field questions from the press.
House ways and means chair, Rep. Ross Hunter (D-48)
The subject of the disagreement: The state employees' contract. Zarelli, of course, has proposed rejecting the current contract and getting more concessions from state workers.
Asked about the possibility of taking up Zarelli's idea, Hunter said it's "not where I'd focus my energy, it's such a small part of the budget."
Hunter put the obsession with state workers in the context of the $5.2 billion problem. "They've suggested making workers pay 20 percent [of health care premiums]. The current contract is 15 percent. That works out to a difference of $40 million."
Hunter also pointed out that by rejecting the current contract, the state would be locked into the previous contract for the next year—in which workers are paying 12 percent—"so, we'd actually lose money if we did that."
Zarelli acknowledged that rejecting the contract would stick the state with the worse deal for a year, but believed it was worth the short-term hit for the long-term benefit of "freeing up the legislature to recommend the contract it wanted. It would give us considerable leverage," he said.
Ranking senate ways and means chair, Sen. Joe Zarelli (R-18)
Hunter acknowledged that he likes the 20 percent number better himself, but says he doesn't have the votes for that. "I wish I could be the czar, but no one seems to like that idea," he said.
The Eds (Murray and Orcutt) also got into it. Rep. Orcutt complained that the majority Democrats were ignoring Republican bills that, he said, focused on job growth—such as a bill to up the exemption level on B&O tax for small business and a bill that would put a moratorium on regulatory agency rulemaking, essentially blaming the Democrats for the mess. Or at least that's the way Sen. Murray took it.
Murray snapped back: "I disagree. You're forgetting about the $2 trillion that was eliminated from the economy," referring to the Wall Street crash. "It's not the fault of the Washington State legislature."
Orcutt got the last word, saying at this point what mattered was "what we're doing [about the recession] and there are a number of [Republican] bills that are languishing."
House ways and means chair, Rep. Ross Hunter (D-48)
The subject of the disagreement: The state employees' contract. Zarelli, of course, has proposed rejecting the current contract and getting more concessions from state workers.
Asked about the possibility of taking up Zarelli's idea, Hunter said it's "not where I'd focus my energy, it's such a small part of the budget."
Hunter put the obsession with state workers in the context of the $5.2 billion problem. "They've suggested making workers pay 20 percent [of health care premiums]. The current contract is 15 percent. That works out to a difference of $40 million."
Hunter also pointed out that by rejecting the current contract, the state would be locked into the previous contract for the next year—in which workers are paying 12 percent—"so, we'd actually lose money if we did that."
Zarelli acknowledged that rejecting the contract would stick the state with the worse deal for a year, but believed it was worth the short-term hit for the long-term benefit of "freeing up the legislature to recommend the contract it wanted. It would give us considerable leverage," he said.
Ranking senate ways and means chair, Sen. Joe Zarelli (R-18)
Hunter acknowledged that he likes the 20 percent number better himself, but says he doesn't have the votes for that. "I wish I could be the czar, but no one seems to like that idea," he said.
The Eds (Murray and Orcutt) also got into it. Rep. Orcutt complained that the majority Democrats were ignoring Republican bills that, he said, focused on job growth—such as a bill to up the exemption level on B&O tax for small business and a bill that would put a moratorium on regulatory agency rulemaking, essentially blaming the Democrats for the mess. Or at least that's the way Sen. Murray took it.
Murray snapped back: "I disagree. You're forgetting about the $2 trillion that was eliminated from the economy," referring to the Wall Street crash. "It's not the fault of the Washington State legislature."
Orcutt got the last word, saying at this point what mattered was "what we're doing [about the recession] and there are a number of [Republican] bills that are languishing."
