WA Budget: Secretary of State takes hits, too

The Office of Secretary of State, led by independently elected official Sam Reed, will be taking some deep cuts in the upcoming two-year budget cycle, but will able to carry out the core functions the public relies upon. The agency is best known for overseeing elections, and also oversees the Corporations and Charities Division, the state Archives and Digital Archives, the state Library, library services for the blind, the domestic partner registry, address-confidentiality protection for domestic violence victims, and other programs. The new budget, which includes about $4 billion in spending cuts, will lop the current OSOS budget from the current $127 million down to $107 million, or down about 12 percent. Some extraordinary costs due to last year's presidential election will not recur during the upcoming biennium, but the new budget still is about $3 million below the bare-bones level of providing what they call the "maintenance level" of services. Some layoffs are likely, and every division of the agency will be cutting overhead costs. Among other cuts, the Elections Division will save about $500,000 by reducing costs for the state Voters' Pamphlet; running legal ads in newspapers, but not on radio or TV, for state ballot measures; providing less frequent state review of county election operations; repealing two publications; and repealing the requirement for printing envelopes for overseas mailings. Marketing for a new state Heritage Center was erased from the budget and construction of the Center itself was put on hold for the next two year. The project on the Capitol Campus is to combine a visitor-experience to the Capitol and provide a new home for the state Library, which is in leased quarters out of town; the Archives; history displays; and a community conference center. Secretary Reed says:

"We will be taking some pretty substantial budget cuts, and that will trim some services and require some layoffs. This is unfortunate and we regret the cuts. At the same time, we certainly acknowledge that we are in very difficult economic circumstances as a state and nation, and we have already begun the task of cutting back. We will do our part, and appreciate that the final budget does not cut as deeply as some drafts we saw. During the days ahead, we will be nose-to-the-grindstone now to `do more with less.' That is what the times require. Our thanks to our hard-working state employees."