From employees to persons using the facilities, those connected with two local institutions seem to be keeping a closer-than-average eye on the state budget process in Olympia.

St. Edward State Park

“There will be some reductions, we still just don’t know what they are yet,” said Don Hoch, the Puget Sound regional director for the Washington State Parks Commission.

The state Senate and House both have passed their versions of Washington’s next two-year spending plan and now are in the process of reconciling any differences. Of course, the final product then has to pass muster by the governor’s office.

Hoch said neither the House nor Senate budgets hold any good news for the parks system. One sliced the commission’s budget by $28 million, the other $40 million.

A spokeswoman for the parks commission, Sandy Mealing reiterated some of Hoch’s comments, stating there is simply no way to predict what happens next for the parks. She did note that both the Senate and the House handed the parks a new funding source, but quickly added that funding source has no track record, making it difficult for officials to decide just how reliable it might be.

Currently, when buying license tabs for vehicles, state drivers are offered a chance to donate $5 to the parks system. Modeled after a program in Montana, Washington legislators have proposed making the donation automatic unless a driver specifically checks a box opting out of that donation.

The thought behind the change seems to be that many drivers won’t bother to check the box, thus increasing donations to a predicted 50 percent of Washington’s drivers, raising about $28 million annually for the parks. But again, Mealing emphasized the participation and revenue rates are purely estimates.

In a worst-case funding scenario, St. Edward is facing possible closure. Another spokesperson for the parks commission, Virginia Painter has said parks officials came up with a list of some 30-plus parks the state might shutter or turn control — and financial responsibility — over to another governmental agency. The parks commission prepared the list at the request of legislators looking to trim up to $23 million from the parks budget.

Initially, lawmakers asked commissioners to slice $10 million in spending.

In preparing the new list, Painter said officials looked at parks with budgets of at least $300,000 annually. Of the parks that made the list, St. Edward has the most annual visitors, with about 710,000. But Painter said that doesn’t mean the park would be the last closed if the list comes into play.

Northshore Senior Center

As with the parks, senior-center Director Lee Harper said neither the House nor the Senate version of the state budget holds much promise for her operations. Both budgets completely eliminate funding for adult day health programs, one of the major services offered by the Northshore center.

“There’s been a lot of behind-the-scenes work going on,” Harper said regarding efforts to restore the funding, with program participants and their families strongly being urged to call their legislators.

“Hopefully, there will be enough pressure that the House or Senate will reconsider,” Harper said while adding she and her staff are trying to be realistic and realize that the state has no choice but to curtail some of its spending.

As she has in the past, Harper said adult day programs would not disappear from the Northshore center if funding is sliced.

“But it will look a lot different,” she said. The center would lose at least one-third, or $1 million, out of its current budget.

Northshore’s adult day program provides medical care from staff nurses, physical rehabilitation, meals and activities, all designed to get senior citizens and disabled persons moving again and increasing the quality of their lives, said the program’s Judi Pirone.

At sites in Bothell and Kirkland, the program currently serves approximately 260 persons ranging in age from 21 to 106. Harper once more stated that closing or drastically reducing adult day health services will not save the state money in the long run.

According to Harper, day programs keep many participants out of nursing homes or assisted living. According to her figures, if just 10 percent of the state’s adult day health Medicaid participants move to nursing homes, the cost to the state would reach about $12 million annually. Washington currently contributes about $10 million to day health programs.

Harper further said there is some misinformation on adult day health spreading through Olympia. She said some legislators believe the programs duplicate other services. Harper insists that is decidedly not the case. If a potential participant signs up for day programs, but services can be had through some other source, that person simply is not eligible for adult day health.

Harper finally noted one budget proposal keeps programing in place, but eliminates transportation.

“What they’re saying is, ‘You can have the buffet, but you have to get there on your own,’” Harper said. “That just won’t work.”

The Northshore center is looking at a kind of double whammy in that it will lose King County funding at the end of this year.

“Nobody thought we would be facing the worst-case scenarios,” Harper said.