Today's Olympia Washington Headlines...
Next piece of budget moves
House Democrats unveiled their plans for the supplemental budget today, saying its not a budget, but a program-by-program plan to cut total spending by $640 million. It's called the "Early Action Savings Bill."
Matheson to depart Department of Retirement Systems
Department of Retirement Systems Director Sandy Matheson plans to leave her post, where she oversaw administration of 15 retirement plans serving 617,000 active, inactive, and retired public employees.
Arnold-Williams steps down after all
Looks like the Secretary of Social and Health Services Robin Arnold-Williams is leaving. Her departure had been rumored for some time, but she had been uncommitted. Today she sent out notice she has decided to go.
Where the whacking is (That's you, DSHS)
I cannot possibly communicate all the fascinating tidbits found in the budget proposal today, but a few items have jumped out:
It's like the night before that holiday
Anticipation runs high today, as we're about to see the governor's budget proposals. "Ugly" is a frequently used adjective here, but since very few people seem to know what exactly is going on, I guess we'll just wait to see what $5 billion in reductions look like before judging.
11,700 jobs lost in November
The Employment Security Department released its latest numbers this morning, showing a 6.4 percent unemployment rate. That’s up one point from October, and the agency estimates 11,700 non-farm jobs disappeared in November. The total number of jobs outside of agriculture is down 22,400 from November 07.
