State workers getting smaller share of budget
New Washington state figures show the cost of paying state employees shrank as a share of government costs over the past decade.
Total compensation fell from 20.5 percent of general-fund outlays in 2002 to 18.2 percent in the year ending in June. The decline was in total pay and benefits for both higher-education and general-government workers.
K-12 public-school-employment costs, which would have driven payroll's share of state expenditures higher, were not included in the calculations.