By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews
Despite more than $5 billion in budget cuts made by elected officials in this year’s legislative session, the Jewish community fared relatively well. The month-long special session ended Wednesday,
Many of the programs that Gov. Christine Gregoire had eliminated from her initial budget were retained, though not at their previous levels.
“From where we started to where we’re at right now, there is reason to be hopeful and there’s a reason to be thankful as we come out of this recession, as we rebound, that we’re going to be able to restore what was lost,” said Zach Carstensen, director of government affairs for the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and the chief lobbyist in Olympia on behalf of the Jewish community.
At the top of the agenda was funding for Jewish Family Service’s building expansion project, which will receive $2.3 million from the state. Construction began earlier this year. The fate of the project’s inclusion in the Building Communities capital budget, which is separate from the operating budget, was up in the air until the last minutes of the session.
Noting that JFS serves many people beyond just the local Jewish population, Carstensen said this funding is “ensuring that they’re going to be able to build that building that is hugely important to this community.”
Several Seattle-based Jewish organizations — the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center, the Washington State Jewish Historical Society, and the AJC Seattle Jewish Film Festival — all rely on grants from the city’s 4Culture arts fund. The program, which many in the arts community had expected to be eliminated, was saved as well.
Its exemption from a newly passed bed tax, if federally approved, will stave off what could have been much larger cuts for the Kline Galland Jewish nursing facility. The Jewish nursing facility will still need to make up about $40,000 cut from its budget, but the loss could have been 10 times that.
A bill sponsored by Sen. Scott White (D–46th) that was revived from last year’s session and backed by the Anti-Defamation League and Temple Beth Am in Seattle’s Northend removes homeless people from the malicious crimes statute, Washington’s hate-crimes law, but provides similar penalties for people who attack the homeless because of their situation.
The ADL had backed the bill for the past two sessions because it sees homelessness as a changeable condition, unlike ethnicity, sexuality or religion.
Still, many programs that directly affect the poorest populations suffered or were eliminated entirely. Disability Lifeline, a program that gives small stipends to disabled people as a bridge while they await federal Medicaid funding has seen continual cuts over the past several years, and this year was no different. The stipends and other medical services were retained, though at lower than previous levels.
Refugee and immigrant services, including resettlement and job training, saw cuts but were retained from the governor’s elimination of the programs in her initial budget. Jewish Family Service is one of a handful of organizations in the state that works with this population. It will see some cuts in the services it provides.