News Releases
Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - April 27, 1997
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136

Governor praises Legislature for supporting his key priorities

OLYMPIA - Gov. Gary Locke today commended state lawmakers for wrapping up the 1997 Legislative Session on time and working with him to craft a two-year financial plan that helps working families and "keeps our promise to make education our number one priority."


The governor credited legislative leaders with negotiating on a number of pivotal issues - including increased funding for education, health care and job training - thereby paving the way for the first on-time adjournment since 1980s.


"On balance, I am extremely pleased with the outcome of my first legislative session as governor," Locke said. "Although we had some tense moments, I think we can all be proud of the work we did to raise academic standards and stay the course on education reform, help working families and make our communities safer by imposing tougher penalties on serious juvenile criminals."


Just last week, Locke vetoed major sections of the first budget sent to him by the Legislature, urging lawmakers to provide additional funding for education and other key priorities. On Saturday, the day before the scheduled close of the legislative session, the Legislature sent him a revised $19.1 billion operating budget for the 1997-99 biennium that provided an additional $79 million to address Locke's major concerns.


Even with those additions, the budget now awaiting action by the governor holds the percentage growth in state general fund spending to the lowest level in 25 years.


Locke has 20 days to review the budget, a separate $3 billion transportation budget, and about 250 more bills passed by the Legislature before taking final action. Late Saturday, he signed into law a $1.9 billion capital construction budget that will support a variety of new projects throughout the state, from school buildings to a new 1,936-bed prison in Grays Harbor County.


In a meeting with reporters on Sunday, Locke outlined his list of major accomplishments during the 1997 Legislative Session.


- Public Education: Nearly 60 percent of the $19.1 billion General Fund-State (GF-S) operating budget approved by the Legislature is dedicated to funding public schools, colleges and universities. At the urging of the governor, the Legislature added $29 million to its initial budget plan to increase state support for education. They improved funding for reform efforts designed to prepare our children for the 21st century. They also added financial aid for middle-class families, work force training for displaced workers and targeted funding for school districts with magnet schools or a large number of disadvantaged students.

The Legislature also accepted the governor's proposal to fully fund the state's portion of all eligible public school-construction projects, providing $277.6 million for that purpose in the 1997-99 biennium. The capital-construction budget signed into law Saturday also includes $126.7 million requested by the governor as a downpayment on an aggressive branch-campus construction program that will provide space for 14,382 additional full-time equivalent (FTE) students over the next ten years.

The operating budget now on the governor's desk supports an increase of 6,390 additional student enrollments in the 1997-99 biennium, and would extend financial aid to approximately 7,000 more students.

- Welfare Reform: In April, the governor signed into law a landmark welfare reform bill, which requires that those who can work must do so as a condition of receiving state assistance. Consistent with the new federal welfare reform law, the state's WorkFirst program imposes a five-year lifetime limit on welfare benefits, while increasing funding for child care, job training and other means of support necessary to help families break the cycle of welfare dependency and return to work.

As part of the final budget agreement, the Legislature agreed to add $2 million for tuition support to help low-income students gain the education and job skills they need to succeed in the workplace.

- Basic Health Plan: In its initial budget bill, the Legislature provided no additional funding to increase enrollments in the state's Basic Health Plan, designed to provide low-cost health insurance for the working poor. In the final budget agreement, the Legislature agreed to add $29.8 million to expand the number of people covered by 8,000 - for a total of 138,000 in the 1997-99 biennium - and hold down premium costs for people with modest incomes.

- Work Force Training: In the final days of the legislative session, the governor reached an agreement with lawmakers to provide a total of $61.8 million to continue the state's successful job retraining program for dislocated workers at state community and technical colleges. At the governor's urging, lawmakers agreed to include an additional $5 million for the program to provide continuing support for financial aid, on-campus job centers, and other services for 6,200 FTE students in the 1997-99 biennium.

- Tax Reductions: To date, the governor has signed more than a dozen tax-relief measures into law, which will save homeowners and businesses a close to $340 million during the 1997-99 biennium. From the start of the legislative session, Locke insisted on a tax policy that is both fair and sustainable in terms of the state's long-term financial outlook. Approximately 40 percent of the tax reductions signed into law so far will benefit homeowners and 60 percent will benefit businesses.

- Savings Incentive Plan: The Legislature joined with the governor in establishing a new Savings Incentive Plan, designed to end the old mentality of "spend it or lose it" among state agencies. In the past, agencies have had little incentive to conserve unspent funds at the end of each fiscal year, knowing that any savings would be taken away and returned to the general fund. Under the new policy, agencies will be allowed to invest a portion of the money they save to improve customer service; the remainder will be used to improve technology in the state's classrooms and help finance statewide school construction projects. Modeled after a similar initiative Locke implemented as King County executive, the Savings Incentive Plan is expected to provide $39 million for K-12 school technology and $12.6 million for school construction in the 1997-99 biennium.

- Juvenile Justice Reform: A landmark overhaul of the state's juvenile justice system will mean that more juveniles accused of serious crimes automatically will be tried in adult courts. In addition to supporting the governor's proposal for tougher prosecution and punishment of serious juvenile offenders, the Legislature approved the governor's community juvenile accountability plan to develop local intervention programs to steer young people away from a life of crime. The reforms include intensive parole supervision for juveniles who are most susceptible to committing future crimes and establishes more predictable sentencing guidelines that require judges to consider the offender's prior criminal record. Under the new approach, first offenses will carry stronger penalties and juveniles' records will no longer be wiped clean when they become adults.

- Children's Services: The initial legislative budget provided no additional funding for Children's Protective Service (CPS) workers, a critical element of the governor's plan to improve the health and safety of children at risk of abuse and neglect. In the final negotiations, the Legislature agreed to add $12 million for additional CPS workers to meet the governor's objectives. The legislative budget also includes $8.5 million to improve the state's foster care system, and $1 million to determine the cause of every childhood death in Washington State.

- Stadium Vote: On Saturday night, the Senate joined with the House to send a financing plan for the Seahawks Stadium to a vote of the people by June 20. Locke praised the Legislature's decision to let Washington voters decide whether or not to save the Seahawks for the Northwest.

From his past experience as a legislative budget writer and King County executive, Locke recognized that compromise was essential to reach agreement on the budget - particularly with Republicans in control of both houses of the Legislature.


Locke expressed disappointment that the legislative budget provides only one 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for teachers, higher education faculty, and other state employees. His own proposal would have provided a COLA of 2.5 percent in each year of the biennium, helping to ease the effect of inflation on employee earnings.


"Teachers, higher education faculty, and other state employees have received only one COLA in the past four years, making it harder and harder to attract and retain qualified staff," Locke said. "As we work to reduce the size and cost of state government, we are asking our employees to do more with less. Unfortunately, legislative leaders made it clear that they were not prepared to negotiate over the salary issue."


The governor also expressed disappointment that the Legislature was unable to reach agreement on a financing plan to adequately address the growing demands on the state's transportation system. Locke called the Legislature's plan to move $100 million from the state's operating budget to help fund transportation projects "a poor substitute for a long-term solution to our state's transportation dilemma that hampers our economic development."


Locke said he would take a close look at that plan and a variety of other measures submitted to him in the final hours of the legislative session. With the Legislature now in adjournment, he also said he is looking forward to following through on his policy goals for Washington State.


"It's one thing to make policy, but there's also the challenge of making it work," Locke said. "I am pleased with the direction we have set this year in making public education our top priority, in reforming our state's welfare system, and in establishing new standards of efficiency and accountability for state government. I think we're off to a good start.


"I'm ready to get down to business to making government work better and moving the agenda of our state forward," Locke said. "Most of all, I'm looking forward to spending more time with Mona and Emily."



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