Budget cuts. Tuition going up 14%/yr for 4 yr univ, 7% others. Searching for BHP info

[uppityperson]

http://www.kndo.com/Global/story.asp?S=10235266

Associated Press - April 23, 2009 9:25 AM ET

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - Washington lawmakers have made some key budget decisions that put them closer to wrapping up their 15-week session by Sunday's deadline.

Majority Democrats have agreed on cuts in projected spending to close a $9 billion gap with expected revenue. They affect schools, colleges, prisons and social services.

The state House passed a bill yesterday that would allow college tuition to climb 14% in each of the next two years. At the University of Washington a 14% increase would cost $875.

The state Senate passed a bill that would deport prison inmates who are in the country illegally.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009105052_apwaxgrcollegetuition.html

The state budget will probably cut state spending on colleges and universities, with higher tuition rates helping to soften the blow. The state Senate began work Thursday on a bill that strikes a statutory cap on annual tuition increases for resident undergraduates.

New tuition caps will be set in the budget. Officials expect them to be about 14 percent per year for four-year universities, and 7 percent per year for community and technical colleges. Those caps could last for the next two state fiscal years. Schools set their own tuition rates.

A 14 percent tuition increase would translate to about $875 more per year at the University of Washington. Officials say UW and Washington State University are the four-year schools with the highest tuition.

[uppityperson]

1. from yesterday...

http://www.nwasianweekly.com/2009/28_18/pages/com_apic.html

Both House and Senate Democrats recommend a 43 percent cut to the state’s Basic Health Plan, which provides health care to residents who are below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. They estimate that the cut will save more than $251 million for the state.

“The state is proposing to cut the Basic Health Plan drastically, and we’re talking about 14 percent this year and another 30 percent next year. So, where are those people going to go?” asked Krisologo-Elliott. “They are the working poor, the ones who don’t have health insurance. So now, they’re going to join the ranks of a very, very large growing number of uninsured people.”

[uppityperson]

2. cuts in payments to hospitals and for nursing-home care. fuck

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009105914_webbudget22m.html

Both the Senate and House, in their proposed budgets, called for cuts in payments for hospital and nursing-home care, and a sharp reduction in the number of people enrolled in the Basic Health Plan, a state-subsidized insurance program for the working poor.

And what will happen when nursing homes can no longer afford to operate? First they will cut staff giving care, increasing work loads to unsafe amounts. How about cutting the required documentation since there is a lot of that that takes a lot of time that could be spent in giving care? I will walk out of work rather than be in an unsafe environment. And then we will be stuck, quit and have less people to give care, or work in an environment that gives substandard inadequate unsafe care?

And then what? Close the doors and send residents....where?