Gregoire Cranks Up the Heat on Delegation Over Medicaid Funding (WA)

June 8, 2010

Gov. Chris Gregoire sent a letter to the state’s congressional delegation on Monday warning of dire consequences if Washington doesn’t get a federal Medicaid match worth $480 million.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray has said she’ll push this week to get the money included in legislation pending in the Senate.

Gregoire warned in her letter that if the money doesn’t come through, the state "would likely see a loss of thousands of jobs as across the board cuts would be a likely response."

She also said she could be forced to call a special session to deal with the loss of money. "If we act quickly, we would have to cut approximately 6,000 jobs," she said, noting the number would double if they had to wait until January.

Cory Curtis, the governor’s spokesman, said the job cut figure was meant as a example of what could happen, to demonstrate how much money is at stake. "I don’t think that’s her immediate response, that we will just ax 6,000 jobs. But all that ends up on the table," he said.

The governor’s budget office has said that if the federal money doesn’t come through this year, it would essentially wipe out the state’s reserves. Still, according to her office, if tax collections don’t drop the state can probably wait until the Legislature returns in January before adjusting the budget.

But if the federal money fails to come in and tax collections drop, there could be a need for a special session to deal with the shortfall.