Peninsula Daily News news sources
OLYMPIA — State lawmakers are expected to unveil specifics of a compromise state budget today that heals a deficit of at least
$5 billion.
Senate and House negotiators reached a tentative agreement on the new two-year budget Monday and prepared to hurriedly approve the spending plan before their overtime session ends Wednesday.
Exactly how the $5 billion shortfall would be healed was kept secret late Monday to allow lawmakers outside the negotiating room to review the spending plan.
But Sen. Ed Murray, a Democrat from Seattle who served as one of the lead negotiators, said that the public shouldn’t expect anything new.
He noted that lawmakers already have had many previous budget hearings and that the new deal breaks no new ground.
“The public has seen every single item in this budget,” Murray said. “There are no surprises.”
The Legislature wasn’t able to reach a balanced budget when its regular session ended a month ago, leading the Democratic governor to call lawmakers back for 30 days of overtime.
Negotiators have been grappling over a series of challenging choices: whether to cut pay for teachers, how to save money in higher education and which social programs could do with less money.
The budget agreement came just hours after leaders announced a crucial deal on how to overhaul the state’s workers’ compensation system.
That plan is also being ushered through the Legislature quickly, easily passing the House on Monday afternoon.
While there was budget agreement Monday, a rift over how to handle the state’s debt limit threatened to stall the Legislature’s work before the end of the session.
Gov. Chris Gregoire called an afternoon meeting with House and Senate leaders to figure out whether there was room for an accord, but lawmakers emerged with only the promise to continue talking.
Jim Justin, Gregoire’s legislative director, said there are strong opinions on both sides of the issue.
“It’s going to be tough,” Justin said. He still believes lawmakers can finish their work by session’s-end Wednesday.
The Senate has wanted a constitutional amendment that would eventually reduce the state’s usage of bonds from 9 percent to 7 percent of state revenues.
But Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, said his Democratic colleagues in the House are unwilling to even support a compromise plan — one that Dunshee proposed — that would ultimately move the debt limit to 8.5 percent and create a suggested guideline of 8 percent.
Dunshee said the curbs would lead to cuts for a variety of construction projects, including schools. That could force local governments to pay an increased share and potentially have to raise taxes.
“This is a big deal,” Dunshee said.
“A lot of members of my caucus are averse to that — doing this quick for something that’s going to be there forever. If you do it wrong, you shift costs to the locals.”
But Senate Republican Leader Mike Hewitt said Dunshee’s recommended compromise — the ones Democrats rejected — doesn’t even do enough.
He’s willing to make some concessions from the Senate package approved earlier this year, but he warned that Republicans won’t vote for the state’s general budget if the debt issue isn’t addressed.
Hewitt acknowledged that the issue may disrupt the push by lawmakers to complete their work.
“It could. Absolutely,” he said.
The amount Washington pays for debt service has grown 61 percent in the last 10 years to $1.8 billion. It now accounts for more than 6 percent of the state’s operating budget.
Because the proposal would amend the state constitution, it also must be sent out for a vote of the people.