Molly Rosbach

Sen. Steve Hobbs proposed a bill to allow state-funded park-and-ride lots to contract with private vendors to lease some of the space in the lot. The revenue collected from the lease agreements would first go toward maintenance and management of the lot; any excess would be funneled into the motor vehicle fund and the multimodal fund.

With a $550 million shortfall in the current budget, and a $5 billion hole to fill in the next biennium, Washington state is targeting programs that are a huge cost to the state, such as the Basic Health Plan and Disability Lifeline. In the latest round of cuts passed by the House and Senate and signed by the governor, the cash grant for Disability Lifeline recipients was reduced by almost 50 percent, and will likely be cut entirely in the next biennial budget. Disability Lifeline provides medical benefits and a cash grant – now down to $174 a month – to disabled adults who don’t qualify for benefits under any other program. All told, the program costs the state $224 million per biennium.

After Washington was awarded a 10th Congressional seat in Dec. 2010 following a 14.1 percent population growth over the past decade, the citizen redistricting commission has until the end of 2011 to redraw Congressional and legislative boundaries in the state to reflect the new district.