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The numbers ’08 denote something more than the suffix on the names of presidential contenders. In Olympia, they mean a supplemental budget year: a time when legislators from all over the state convene on the Capitol for a brief 60-day session.
Those familiar with the process say there’s little chance of making new policy in ’08; call it election-year jitters. Instead, the governor proposes, and the house passes, a number of mid-course adjustments to the two-year budget — saving money to make ends meet when the falling real estate market dampens property tax assessments, for example. Gov. Chris Gregoire wants to set aside $1.2 billion of this year’s $1.4 billion budget surplus; that would help when, as in 2010, state coffers are short by a projected $132 million.
There are other ideas for how to use a $1.4 billion surplus. Welfare payments available through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and General Assistance-Unemployable (GA-U) have not been increased in over a decade; today, a family of three on TANF receives no more than $546 a month, or less than half the federal poverty level, according to the Statewide Poverty Action Network.
Raising welfare payments just 3 percent for every family would cost $17 million — too much for most legislators, says Tony Lee of Poverty Action. Instead of an increase, 29 state and local nonprofits are asking that a separate housing program, for homeless families, be amplified to cover individuals and at-risk households.
The Transitional Housing, Operating, and Rent (THOR) program is flexible voucher money that gets used up quickly, says Ben Gitenstein of the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance. It’s managed locally by the assistance agency Solid Ground. Increasing its funding by $10 million “is basically taking a program that we know works and is too small and expanding it,” he says.
The governor has already identified affordable housing as a major beneficiary of the budget surplus, pledging $50 million more for the state’s Housing Trust Fund and $1.5 million for assistance to
homeowners victimized by subprime lenders.
What’s missing, says Casey Trupin of Columbia Legal Services, is more money to keep faith with mandated improvements to foster care. While
Gregoire is beefing up staff to meet the requirement that foster children get a monthly audience with a caseworker, per the requirements of the Braam v. State of Washington settlement, other aspects of the 2006 settlement are languishing. Case workers are doing less than half the required screenings of children for mental or physical health. So Braam’s attorneys are again taking legal action.
“The governor had a chance to put together a budget that would limit the court involvement in Braam,” Trupin says, “and she only got a little ways there and left a big gaping hole, making our need to go back to court more apparent.”
Even though policy issues get short shrift this year, some proposals that nearly passed last year are making a return. Outside of Seattle and King County, it’s legal to reject tenants on Section 8 or other forms of income assistance; the Tenants Union, area housing authorities, and other advocates are seeking to ban such discrimination. Also on the table: a curb on lending practices at check-cashing outlets; and ensuring that the state makes good on a promise made last session to secure health insurance for all children by 2010.
The legislature convenes Mon., Jan. 14.
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