Budget approval avoids shutdown

The state was facing a potential government shutdown if state legislators failed to reach an agreement on the 2015-17 operating budget by Tuesday at midnight.

Legislators worked into the early hours of Saturday to reach the final agreements in the budget before the end of their second special 30-day session Saturday, announcing in a 1:28 a.m. press release that a deal had been reached and details would be finalized later in the day. A third special session was called Sunday so legislators would have time to print, study and vote on the budget before the Tuesday midnight deadline.

The Senate passed the budget Monday with a 38-10 vote, and the House passed it hours later with a 90-8 vote, forwarding it to the governor's desk for a signature.

Inslee signed the two-year budget into law Tuesday, avoiding the shutdown and the consequences of it. The same thing happened two years ago when Inslee signed the 2013-15 budget just before the June 30 deadline.

The $38 billion budget calls for decreased tuition costs at colleges and universities, increased funding for College Bound scholarships and more funding for state parks. Additionally, it also invests approximately $1.3 billion in K-12 schools and funds cost-of-living pay raises for teachers.

"It was a long process, but in the end we have agreed to a budget that moves this state forward in many important ways," Inslee said in a separate press release. "This budget allows us to make a major step toward meeting our obligation to Washington's children and to the state constitution to adequately fund education. And I'm particularly pleased that it also allows funding of our collective bargaining agreements and will give teachers a long-overdue and well-deserved cost of living adjustment."

Several preparations were made in Olympia to prepare for the potential of a shutdown, including notifying 26,000 employees they would be temporarily laid off beginning July 1 if there was no budget deal by that time.

Another preparation came from the state Parks and Recreation Commission as they prepared for the possibility of state parks and campgrounds closing during the Fourth of July weekend.

Virginia Painter, communication director at Washington State Parks, said her department began the task of notifying campers with reservations ahead of time of the possibility that they would not be open.

"We started with the idea to contact reservation holders starting June 30 through July 8," she said.

Painter said more than 10,000 reservations had been made for that time period, amounting to 48,000 "camper nights" and more than 128,000 people who would have been affected statewide. Additionally, another 421 bookings for cabins and vacation homes had been made as well as 102 group accommodations for special events such as weddings and family reunions. Those bookings amount to $1.9 million in revenue that would have been lost over the busy Fourth of July camping period, Painter said.

Locally and nearby, parks and campgrounds affected would have included Palouse Falls, Steptoe Butte, Steptoe Battlefield, Fields Spring, Lewis and Clark Trail and Lyons Ferry.

Prior to the budget being passed, Painter said "I'm just hoping for the best" as she tried to remain optimistic that it could be passed on time.

On a local level, Council on Aging and Human Services Executive Director Paige Collins breathed a sigh of relief when the budget passed. Collins was preparing ahead of time for what a government shutdown would mean for food banks.

"That's going to be a huge deal not just in Whitman County but all over the state," she said of the possibility of a shutdown.

Food banks rely on funding from the Emergency Food Assistance Program (EFAP), which Collins said primarily provides $75,000 in support for 11 food banks in the county including Colfax, Rosalia, Malden, LaCrosse and a small piece of the Pullman Community Action Center.

Collins noted that the Colfax Food Pantry serves over 90 families each time it is open and county wide, more than 1,800 individuals and 750 households are served by other county food banks. Collins feared many of the smaller food banks having to temporarily close if a shutdown occurred.

"Not even the bigger pantries will have the food or funding to supply extra people let alone their own people," she said at the time.

Now that the budget has passed, though, the food banks can stay in operation and continue to serve the community.

"If it passes, obviously the voices of the people, if not a little late, were finally heard," Collins said prior to the passing. "I would be extremely grateful because this impacts our clients so greatly. We'll have a little mini party."