Ready to hold the hospitals hostage to a general tax increase

Joe Turner of the Tacoma News Tribune found money that was going to be held hostage to convince voters they had to vote to increase the state sales tax. Both houses of the Legislature decreased the cut to hospitals after they gave up on asking for the tax increase. They no longer could use the hostage, so they let it go and increased funding by $36.5 million (that is, decreased the cut).

Political Buzz - The News Tribune | Tacoma, WA:

... The final budget restored $36.5 million to the amount of money that was going to cut from state payments to hospitals for inpatient and outpatient, the biggest component.

When the House and Senate came out with their original budgets March 30-31, BOTH of them were going to cut hospital funding by $157.6 million in 2009-11. The final budget cut funding by only $121.1 million.

The final budget restored $36.5 million to the amount of money that was going to cut from state payments to hospitals for inpatient and outpatient, the biggest component.

When the House and Senate came out with their original budgets March 30-31, BOTH of them were going to cut hospital funding by $157.6 million in 2009-11. The final budget cut funding by only $121.1 million.

That's not a case of the two chambers having different amounts and then compromising on an amount somewhere in between the two. I suspect state budget-writers decided to lessen the blow to hospitals because there wasn't enough support to put a 0.3 percent sales tax hike on the ballot. That meant, there was no chance to raise $1.1 billion over 3 years. And that meant there was no way to buy back cuts to health care programs, mainly to hospitals and nursing homes. (If you'll recall, the hospitals and nursing homes, along with the Service Employees International Union locals 775 and 1199, were the driving forces behind the tax package. Well, and House Speaker Frank Chopp.)

But as my critical reader says, I'm just looking for conspiracies. And I am. One reason this is important is because I asked -- before the final budget came out and before the tax referendum went into the tax -- if the budget would be revised if there were no tax measure on the ballot. And key House leaders told me, "No."

And yet, it does appear the budget was redone to soften the blow to hospitals and nursing homes. That's my conspiracy theory and I'm sticking to it.