First they raided the state employee and teacher pension fund to the tune of $630 million dollars. Now it seems they will finish the job off by robbing the jurisdictions. State lawmakers call this the new ‘hand in the cookie jar’ technique of acquiring money the ‘reversion program.’ The ‘reversion program is being used to help compensate for the budget shortfall.
To come up with the money, the localities are giving the choice of writing a check or cutting services in programs they receive state funding for. The plan was originally instituted in FY 2009. According to the Washington Examiner:
The “reversion” program — as state lawmakers call it — originally was excluded from the coming year’s budget, but lawmakers decided to incorporate and expand the policy. As a result, counties and cities will have to return $60 million to the state during each of the next two years.
