This Washington
"We are the Safety Net"
Taking its cue from the Occupy movement's "We are the 99 Percent," slogan, state workers with the Washington Federation of State Employees showed up in full force today in green WFSE T-shirts with an arresting slogan of their own printed on the back: "We are the Safety Net."
A number of WFSE employees from Fircrest School for people with developmental disabilities in Shoreline, including Negussie Mengeshin and Tegene Gebrohiwot, complained that with cuts on top of three years of no raises, "life has become impossible," as Gebrohiwot put it. "We have families to raise." Gebrohiwot complained that he "had just paid taxes to bail out the corporations. Now it's their turn. I come today to address these endless cuts. Stop the cutting."
Public employees were a flash point as the state legislature convened today to deal with to $1.5 billion shortfall in its $32 billion budget. Republicans (and the Seattle Times ) argue that state employees need to pay a greater share of their health care premiums.
Gregoire has said state employees have paid enough; she has charts and graphs showing that they've taken 19 percent of the $10.5 billion in cuts during the last three years of recessionary budgets, including $2.5 billion in hits through salary cuts and furloughs, and a lack of planned cost of living increases. (That's the second biggest target after education). However, Gregoire did ask the state employees to agree to reopen health care coverage contract talks. They said no. Meanwhile, Gregoire's budget does unilaterally scale back the state's monthly payment into state workers' health care plans.
I asked the senate and house budget leaders—Democratic state Sen. Ed Murray (D-43) and Democratic state Rep. Ross Hunter (D-48)—what they thought about state employees' argument that they have contributed their fair share.
Hunter, a moderate Democrat on fiscal issues who has called for state employees to increase their share of health care premium coverage from 15 to 20 percent, told me "everything is on the table" when the legislature looks for savings.
But he offered a reality check for those who think state employees are budget cost drivers: "There's not much money there. It's in the tens of millions at best." He also wasn't keen on the idea of reducing workers' salaries. "The question isn't whether or not you can do it, the question is can you do it and still have an effective workforce." Hunter, a former Microsoft exec, said the the state should take note of the Redmond company's focus on raises and "quality."
Sen. Murray was more emphatic that going after state workers was not the solution. "They have given and given," he said, "through layoffs and furloughs and pay cuts." (State employees took a three percent cut last year.) And Murray got slightly poetic in their defense, offering his own take on their slogan. "They are the community," he said. "When people talk about cutting state workers, they think they're talking about bureaucrats here in Olympia, but these are the workers out in the community, these are the people who are teaching your kids and keeping us safe."
And, Murray joked, "the people who work at the liquor store ... well, not anymore." Murray, of course, was referring to I-1183, the recent initiative that privatized state run liquor stores. More than 900 employees will lose their jobs.
On the Republican side, Deputy Leader Rep. Joel Kretz (R-7) was skeptical about Hunter's assessment, saying that state workers "make up a majority of state budget costs ... I don't want to cut them any more, and they've taken cuts, but do you want to come with me back to my district where people make $22,000 to $24,000 a year on average and tell them they have to pay more so state employees can maintain their package? I'm just not going to go back to my district and ask them to do that."
Kretz says the average cost of a state employee is $74,000, compared to $60,000 in the private sector.
A number of WFSE employees from Fircrest School for people with developmental disabilities in Shoreline, including Negussie Mengeshin and Tegene Gebrohiwot, complained that with cuts on top of three years of no raises, "life has become impossible," as Gebrohiwot put it. "We have families to raise." Gebrohiwot complained that he "had just paid taxes to bail out the corporations. Now it's their turn. I come today to address these endless cuts. Stop the cutting."
Public employees were a flash point as the state legislature convened today to deal with to $1.5 billion shortfall in its $32 billion budget. Republicans (and the Seattle Times ) argue that state employees need to pay a greater share of their health care premiums.
Gregoire has said state employees have paid enough; she has charts and graphs showing that they've taken 19 percent of the $10.5 billion in cuts during the last three years of recessionary budgets, including $2.5 billion in hits through salary cuts and furloughs, and a lack of planned cost of living increases. (That's the second biggest target after education). However, Gregoire did ask the state employees to agree to reopen health care coverage contract talks. They said no. Meanwhile, Gregoire's budget does unilaterally scale back the state's monthly payment into state workers' health care plans.
I asked the senate and house budget leaders—Democratic state Sen. Ed Murray (D-43) and Democratic state Rep. Ross Hunter (D-48)—what they thought about state employees' argument that they have contributed their fair share.
Hunter, a moderate Democrat on fiscal issues who has called for state employees to increase their share of health care premium coverage from 15 to 20 percent, told me "everything is on the table" when the legislature looks for savings.
But he offered a reality check for those who think state employees are budget cost drivers: "There's not much money there. It's in the tens of millions at best." He also wasn't keen on the idea of reducing workers' salaries. "The question isn't whether or not you can do it, the question is can you do it and still have an effective workforce." Hunter, a former Microsoft exec, said the the state should take note of the Redmond company's focus on raises and "quality."
Sen. Murray was more emphatic that going after state workers was not the solution. "They have given and given," he said, "through layoffs and furloughs and pay cuts." (State employees took a three percent cut last year.) And Murray got slightly poetic in their defense, offering his own take on their slogan. "They are the community," he said. "When people talk about cutting state workers, they think they're talking about bureaucrats here in Olympia, but these are the workers out in the community, these are the people who are teaching your kids and keeping us safe."
And, Murray joked, "the people who work at the liquor store ... well, not anymore." Murray, of course, was referring to I-1183, the recent initiative that privatized state run liquor stores. More than 900 employees will lose their jobs.
On the Republican side, Deputy Leader Rep. Joel Kretz (R-7) was skeptical about Hunter's assessment, saying that state workers "make up a majority of state budget costs ... I don't want to cut them any more, and they've taken cuts, but do you want to come with me back to my district where people make $22,000 to $24,000 a year on average and tell them they have to pay more so state employees can maintain their package? I'm just not going to go back to my district and ask them to do that."
Kretz says the average cost of a state employee is $74,000, compared to $60,000 in the private sector.
