Here are some highlights from the budget
I am glad to see that more money is going to be spent on education.
•Early learning: $29 million for pre-kindergarten programs and $9 million to launch a rating system for state-paid child care providers, based on how well they teach children. Also: $86 million to boost state child care payments 10 percent and to support health care benefits for those child care workers.
•Health care: $31 million to provide state-paid health insurance for an additional 32,000 children, which would bring the state’s covered total to 624,000 Washington kids. Plus millions more to boost reimbursement for pediatricians treating kids under the Medicaid program and for childhood immunizations
•Higher education: $60 million to create 3,300 new high-demand slots at colleges, including a new program to train doctoral students in nursing as well as first-year medical- and dental students in Spokane. Another $20 million to allow the state to freeze tuition at community and technical colleges for two years, 5 percent to 7 percent tuition-hike caps at four-year schools and nearly $400 million for raises and benefits for faculty and staff, particularly part-time community college faculty.
•Crime: $37 million to build 476 more prison beds and $25 million to improve education, job training and release preparation for prison inmates, so that there is less chance of returning to crime when they get out of prison.
•Mental health: $20 million to expand mental health treatment, including higher payments for drug and alcohol treatment. Also: more than $100 million for more homes for developmentally disabled people.
•Foster children: $23 million for monthly caseworker visits to monitor the health of foster children, plus higher reimbursement for foster parents and more money for mental health treatment of foster kids. Gregoire also wants to cast a wider net for extended family members to care for children who cannot safely remain in their parents’ home.
•Human services: $140 million for more low-income housing, $103 million for higher wages for home care workers.
•State worker pay: $1.5 billion in raises. Most state workers would get a 2 percent raise in 2008 and a 3.2 percent raise the following year. For some, the increase would be more: state troopers’ salaries would rise 4 percent a year, and most state nurses would get an extra 17.5 percent increase. Prison guards and others in hard-to-fill jobs would also receive “significant pay increases.”
•Environment: $220 million for Puget Sound cleanup.
•A $4.4 million pilot project “so that the election of judges can be free from money influence, real or perceived.”
•Rainy Day Fund: With the state standing to collect nearly $2 billion more than expected in taxes and other revenue through the end of 2009, Gregoire wants to set up a hard-to-tap emergency account for hard times. She’s start with a $262 million down payment over two years.
•Parks: Nearly $100 million to fix up water supplies, bathrooms, showers, stormwater systems and other facilities at state parks. Also $70 million to develop sites for wildlife conservation and outdoor recreation.
•Transportation: Billions of dollars for major projects, including four new ferries, replacing Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct and State Route 520 Floating Bridge, North Spokane Corridor, bridges and Snoqualmie Pass.
Taken from the Spokesmanreview
