KPLU Local News
(2010-08-13)
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Washington Governor Chris Gregoire, at the capitol in Olympia earlier this year.
AP Photo.
Despite a half-billion-dollar bailout from the feds, Washington state's budget is still in peril. So Governor Gregoire is getting out the budget shears. Washington's welfare program - called WorkFirst - is one area where the Democratic governor has ordered deep reductions. That includes enforcing a strict five-year limit on receiving welfare benefits - even for families who are in compliance with welfare rules and actively looking for a job. Robin Zukoski with Columbia Legal Services calls that draconian.
Robin Zukoski: "By definition these are the families that are the hardest to work with and the ones who face the most barriers and challenges to entering the world of work and they are the most vulnerable and they are the one who are going to be losing their benefits."
Also under the Governor's cuts, more than two-thousand working families in Washington will lose their child care subsidies starting in October. Gregoire's social services director calls the cuts "painful," yet "necessary."
Click the link below, "Child Care Subsidies Among Gregoire Cuts" to learn more about that aspect of the Governor's action.
(From KPLU News) - In her budget announcement, Gregoire says it may be necessary to make "across the board" cuts to balance the budget this fall. As Austin Jenkins has reported in recent days, the Governor will make her decision about much larger cuts once September's revenue forecasts are complete. Reductions at that level could mean around $500 million will have to fall to the budget axe. The state has made $5.1 billion in cuts in this recession, according to figures from the Governor's office.
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