This is the Federation Hotline updated March 8.
Final budget votes today, last day of 2018 Legislative session
The joint Senate-House compromise supplemental budget came out Wednesday night (March 7). No major surprises. Floor votes are expected tonight (Thursday, March 8). The Legislature adjourns by midnight, on this the 60th and final day of the 2018 legislative session.
The supplemental budget is the smaller, off-year spending plan that tweaks the major biennial budget adopted last year.
Overall, the final supplemental budget (ESSB 6032) helps vulnerable people, students, public safety and the natural resources that make this state great.
It funds the expansion of the PSERS pension program to include institutions workers in high-risk jobs.
It has a funding rate for our health insurance that expands some benefits: a new virtual diabetes prevention program; a change in the waiting period for dental crown replacements in the Uniform Dental Program from seven to five years; and an increase in the Medicare-eligible retiree subsidy from $150 a month to $168 a month starting next year.
There's also a one-time 1.5 percent cost-of-living benefit increase for PERS 1 retirees.
See all the compromise supplemental budget documents being vote on later today at: http://leap.leg.wa.gov/leap/budget/detail/2018/ho2018p.asp
The Senate Democrats put out a quick two-page summary. See it at: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4404739/2018-Budget-Summary.pdf
Here's a summary of other highlights in the order used in the final supplemental budget summary:
Higher Education:
- Some 4,600 students - many may be our kids or students our Higher Education members are committed to - will benefit from funding to reduce the waiting list of the State Need Grant, a need-based financial aid program, by a quarter in Fiscal Year 2019. The Senate Democrats say this "sets us on a path to fully fund State Need Grant over (the) next four years."
- Provides a one-time backfill of University of Washington compensation and central services costs. Uses state General Fund dollars instead of tuition.
Mental Health:
- Funding for increased staffing and other costs addressing quality of care and patient safety at the state mental hospitals. Includes funding a federally required plan of correction at Western State Hospital; and an acuity-based staffing tool and hospital-wide staffing model at the state hospitals.
- Increases funding for forensics, including 45 new beds at Western State Hospital.
Human Services:
- Fully restores and increases TANF grants. Increases asset limits for public assistance programs.
Developmental Disabilities
- Expands State-Operated Living Alternatives (SOLAs) by 47 beds as an option for clients in residential habilitation centers (RHCs).
- Addresses critical RHC Medicaid compliance staffing.
Children's Services:
- Increases implementation funding for the new Department of Children, Youth and Families.
Veterans:
- Funds critical staffing in the Department of Veterans Affairs: Support for the newest facility in Walla Walla while staffing requirements are adjusted for in-coming residents; and funding for staffing support at the Washington Soldiers' Home in Orting, and to address decreases in federal revenue related to temporary decreases in census.
Corrections:
- Increases vendor rates by 25 percent for providers of chemical dependency services in the Department of Corrections.
- Funding is provided to the Office of the Governor for the creation and operation of the Office of Corrections Ombuds.
Juvenile Rehabilitation:
- Funds to hire 7.6 FTEs (full-time equivalent positions) to operate an acute mental health program for youth at Green Hill School in Chehalis.
Disaster response:
- Funds 2017 wildfire season costs incurred by the Department of Natural Resources; increases fire response capability.
- Funding to the Military Department (the agency in charge of Emergency Management) for disaster recovery efforts for 13 presidentially-declared state disasters; and funding to the Disaster Response Account to address a projected shortfall.
Other General Government:
- Funding is provided for several economic development programs through the Department of Commerce.
- Funding to Consolidated Technology Services (WaTech) to improve the state's cyber defense program.
These are just the highlights. Stay tuned for other new details and results of today's budget votes.
Big win for WSU-Puyallup members
Members of the new WFSE/AFSCME bargaining unit at Washington State University's Puyallup Research and Extension Center Wednesday (March 7) voted unanimously to immediately come under the current, 2017-2019 union contract for WSU members.
WSU-Puyallup members Beau Porter and Ron Froemke and WFSE/AFSCME Labor Advocate Mark Hamilton Tuesday (March 6) negotiated the memorandum of understanding with WSU management. The MOU brings the employees in the recently certified WSU-Puyallup Bargaining Unit 20 (Farms and Maintenance Operations) under WFSE/AFSCME's current contract.
That's it for now.
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