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WDFW director warns $10 million in new state cuts will reduce hires and programs
Summary
Director Kelly Suswin told the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission that about $10 million in new state budget cuts will fall across business services, fish monitoring, wildlife programs and lands maintenance, forcing hiring freezes, FTE reductions and scaled-back work unless funding is restored.
Chair Jim Anderson convened the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission in Walla Walla on March 13, where Director Kelly Suswin told commissioners the department faces about $10 million in new cuts in the state budget that will reduce staffing and program capacity.
Suswin briefed the Commission on interagency work and fisheries planning before turning to the budget. "On budget, the bottom line is, bad for us, frankly," Suswin said, summarizing a package of cuts the department has been unable to reverse in conference committee. He said the reductions are both one'time and ongoing and that the department will distribute the impact across programs to maintain core functions.
The Commission packet and Suswin's presentation broke the reductions down by program areas: roughly $1.5 million from business services (internal operations such as IT), about $1.7 million from fish…
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