Results tagged “schmudget”

• Schmudget analyzes the 2009-2011 House budget and compares it to the Senate's, released yesterday.
• MyBallard is concerned about tents on Shilshole and stolen trees.
• The Troll got tagged! Fremont Universe reports, and they have photos.

The Seattle Times discusses how the planned Senate budget cuts "roll back much of the party's agenda." Publicola has four "angry press releases" on behalf of service workers, NARAL, low income housing, and childen's health. And Schmudget lays out the cuts in the areas of education and health, pointing out that some cuts are so deep, they effectively cut twice, by losing access to federal recovery funds.

This morning, the state Senate will reveal their plan for a 2009-2011 operating budget; the House will release their version tomorrow. Given an unavoidable $9 billion shortfall, major cuts are only to be expected. Schmudget reported that if the Senate uses the entire Rainy Day Fund and frees up all available federal funds, legislators will still have to reckon with a deficit of $3.1 billion; that's where the program slicing and dicing comes into play. Stream the budget unveiling proceedings live at Washington State Public Affairs' website, tvw.org, or check online sometime after 10:30 a.m. today to find out what the Senate's budget looks like.

We try to resist loading up on bad news first thing Monday morning, but let's just do this quickly and get it out of the way: Publicola records Sen. Maria Cantwell's fight to insert some accountability into the bailout of AIG and others (she was overruled, and now AIG is claiming it has to pay $165 million in bonuses with bailout money because it promised! Out of curiosity, who writes a bonus agreement that puts a company on the hook even with catastrophic losses?) And Schmudget tells us Washington unemployment is forecasted to top out at 10 percent next year. On the plus side, all those unemployed people won't have to negotiate the kind of new, transfer-ier bus system proposed by Seattle Transit Blog. So that's a tiny little win.

• Jobs are difficult to find, but not so scarce that P-I staffers aren't feeling free to turn down Hearst's online operations job offers. "Bottom line: An online-only P-I is not a done deal. At least not yet," says Publicola's Sandeep Kaushik.
• Southlake reports on a man shot in the butt, and Queen Anne View has a kickass firefighter who won a stair-climbing competition.
• Over at Schmudget (caution: policy wonkstrosity ahead), they're talking about sub-prime lending in Washington state all week long. Today, their angle has to do with the depressing racial disparity in the mortgage market. Best of all, the post includes an infographic!

When the inevitable anti-tunnel initiative was filed, Governor Gregoire said she'd be disappointed if there was a delay. (A delay? Dealing with the viaduct? Pshaw.) The governor is in a hurry to disburse that estimated $2.8 billion, conjured up for a design that's said to be one percent complete. (Here we pause to admire the precision of knowing what one percent of a plan looks like.)