This editorial was published April 1, 2009

After waiting nearly three months since the start of the legislative session, we have finally gotten the first detailed look at how state lawmakers propose to bridge a $9 billion revenue shortfall.

The wait wasn't worth it.

Senate Democrats offered a budget on Monday, followed by House Democrats on Tuesday. While the Senate budget takes a sledge hammer to public education, the House version takes its aim at higher education, with colleges and universities facing up to a 17 percent cut and community colleges looking at a cutback of 13 percent. Both budget proposals also place extra burdens on health care coverage and create a few more gaping holes in the social safety net that's there to protect those who are the most vulnerable.

What the two proposed budgets for 2009-11 don't accomplish is a structured spending plan that will return this state to fiscal responsibility. The proposed cuts of nearly $4 billion fail to produce a significant and lasting reduction in labor costs. Instead, they rely too heavily on $3 billion in one-time federal stimulus funds and on questionable revenue raised through closing several tax loopholes.

Missing in this process is a profound change in the way the state operates. Without that, we could find ourselves in 2011 in the same spot we are today -- staring at a budget that's upside down.

Budget writers for the Senate and House will now head into final negotiations to hammer out a budget for the upcoming 2009-11 budget. It could be a tug-of-war. Even the fate of the state-run Yakima Valley School in Selah is unclear, with the Senate plan closing it down and the House budget keeping it open.

Let's look at some of the programs Senate Democrats wish to reduce that would affect those living here in the Yakima Valley.

The overall cutbacks of $1 billion in public education contain the lopping off of $253 million in levy equalization funds that help support property-poor districts. All 15 school districts in the Yakima Valley receive these funds, totaling some $35 million this year. The Yakima school district alone could see nearly $3 million wiped out, while districts like Grandview face a drop of $1.2 million.

Cuts to Medicaid reimbursement rates for hospitals and nursing homes under the Senate plan again would have a far greater impact here in Central Washington than elsewhere in the state. In Yakima County alone, nearly half of the residents are on some form of public assistance, which is primarily Medicaid.

Senate budget writers have hospitals across the state dealing with a reduction of $107 million in funds to help cover costs for patients who are unable to pay. For nursing homes, the two-year Senate budget has $38 million in cuts.

We find these savings especially painful since we see no significant attempt by majority Democrats to make sure state labor costs are part of their cost-cutting equation. If they had, these program cuts would be far less severe.

Both the Senate and House budgets do offer savings by not covering cost-of-living pay increases for state workers, college staffers and teachers.

However, the Senate version only projects a loss of 1,192 jobs in the general-government sector. That's simply not enough. If we are cutting back on all of these programs, why are we not more significantly cutting back on the state workers in those programs? The job losses represent only 1 percent of the state's 110,000 general-government jobs -- made up of 47,000 employees in higher education, 35,000 in human services and 11,000 in transportation.

What we fear now is a concerted move by lawmakers and interest groups to ask voters to raise taxes in order to avoid the deepest, most painful cuts -- namely to education and health care. That's a move we cannot support in light of the Legislature's unwillingness to confront the paramount issue of labor costs.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Barbara Serrano, Spencer Hatton and Karen Troianello.