Cuts Would Hit Spokane Especially Hard Third District Ranks High In Use Of Social Service Programs

Spokane has more to lose than any other region in the state under some social service cuts proposed by the House GOP on Monday.

The city’s 3rd Legislative District ranks second in the state for the use of social service programs, with more than 40 percent of residents receiving some type of help, according to state statistics.

Only the Yakima Valley relies more on social programs.

And the 3rd District - which includes downtown, much of the North Side and the near South Hill - is the heaviest user by far of some services that would be cut or eliminated under the GOP budget plan.

House Speaker Clyde Ballard, R-East Wenatchee, said Republicans are proud of their $17.3 billion proposed two-year budget. He said it takes long-overdue steps to tilt the tables toward taxpayers instead of tax users.

Unlike Washington, D.C., lawmakers pondering cuts to trim the enormous federal deficit, state lawmakers are eyeing spending cuts to enable them to cut taxes.

“If you spend less, you can tax less,” said Rep. Brian Thomas, R-Renton, chairman of the House Finance Committee.

The state has enough revenue to balance the budget, with hundreds of million of dollars to spare. Republicans have proposed spending much of it on $738 million in tax cuts, mostly for businesses.

That angers some critics. “It’s corporate welfare at the expense of schoolchildren and the poor,” said Greg Devereux of the state employee’s union.

Ballard said if anything, Republicans will be looking for more spending cuts as the proposed budget is reviewed by the House Appropriations Committee and on the House floor this week.

Passage of the budget is expected by the full House by this weekend. Senate Democrats will unveil their counterproposal next week. Then the House and Senate will have to hash out their differences in a conference committee.

Meanwhile, all the talk of spending cuts has Spokane advocates for state programs that help the poor, needy and abused worried.

The GOP plan would cut cash grants to pregnant women by $14 million statewide, or more than 90 percent. The program is more heavily utilized in the 3rd District than any other district in the state, according to the state Department of Social and Health Services.

The grants help more than 400 Spokane women a year cover their utility bills, rent, and other essentials during the first and second trimesters of their pregnancies.

The budget also would hit welfare recipients, who would receive no cost of living increase. Gov. Mike Lowry proposed a 6 percent increase over the coming biennium.

More welfare recipients live in Spokane’s 3rd District as a percentage of the population than anywhere in the state.

The district also leads the state in the percentage of people on the General Assistance-Unemployable program, which pays people who can’t work because of a physical or mental disability. That program also would be cut.

Local programs put together by school districts, hospitals, law enforcement, and citizen activists to combat child abuse and neglect would also lose all their state support under the GOP’s budget plan.

“When you look at this budget, with all the concern about youth, it doesn’t make a lot of sense,” said Linda Stone, Spokane coordinator for the Children’s Alliance.

“These programs are an example of where the Spokane community came together and crafted a set of services that make sense locally and provide a continuum of care. It seems like an odd thing to target.”

The Deaconess Regional Center for Child Abuse and Neglect would lose all of the approximately $180,000 state grant that makes up half its annual budget, said Mary Ann Murphy, manager of the center.

The center was established seven years ago to provide a non-threatening environment where victims of the most serious cases of child abuse and neglect can be assisted by law enforcement and health professionals.

The proposed budget also drew criticism for cuts in K-12 education. It would cut more than $6 million for District 81 schools, and $1.7 million for special education, said Jerry Hopkins, president of the Spokane Education Association, the union representing District 81 employees.

He also took issue with a requirement that state employees and K-12 employees pay $32 a month toward their health benefits.

District 81 employees receive their health benefits under a range of collective bargaining agreements. Most employees who use an employee-only policy have their premium paid in full by taxpayers.

Some others with family policies are already paying part of their monthly premium out of their pocket, and would pay more under the GOP’s plan.

“I already pay about $200 a month for coverage for my family of five,” said Brian Bogue of Spokane, a percussionist who teaches band in District 81 schools.

The GOP proposed $100-a-month raises for teachers. They’ll take home only about $40 after deductions for benefits and federal taxes.

State employees would get the same $100 a month raise, and also face a re-configuring of their health benefitsHe called the budget “a blatant money grab,” and a “hit on state employees.”