December 13, 2010

Legislature Passes Second Supplemental Budget in Seven Hours on Saturday

The Washington State Legislature quickly passed a second supplemental budget for Fiscal Year 2011 on Saturday, which closed $580 million of the FY11 $1.1 billion deficit. More cutting must be done; we anticipate that this action will occur in a final supplemental budget, which would be adopted in January 2011, likely as the first action of the 2011 legislative session set to begin on Monday, January 10th.

This Saturday’s budget included reductions to many areas of government but Basic Education, Human Services, and the Department of Social and Health Services were hardest hit. Meanwhile, Higher Education received a revision of October’s across-the-board cuts in order to maintain a  federally-required maintenance of effort (MOE) funding floor. While this federal requirement spared individual higher education institutions from major cuts this month, the MOE does not apply to state-funded financial aid programs, and the next round of FY11 cuts will likely include reductions to the State Need Grant.

Please review our briefing on Saturday’s budget for more information and contact us directly with any questions.