Sen. Phil Rockefeller, D-Bainbridge Island, speaks in favor of the budget.
 

By Erik Smith

Staff writer/ Washington State Wire

OLYMPIA, Feb. 27.—The state Senate passed a spending plan Saturday evening with a big blank spot – the part where lawmakers pay for it all.

            Nearly $1 billion in new taxes will be required for Senate Bill 6444, which makes adjustments to the two-year budget adopted by lawmakers last year. That’s to cover $2.8 billion dollars worth of trouble that has cropped up since lawmakers finished their work in 2009.

            The budget gets there with a combination of cuts, raids on dedicated accounts overseen by state government, and ultimately a big tax increase in the middle of one of the worst recessions in state history.

            Majority Democrats said they have figured out the best way to balance the needs of state programs with the needs of the population at large. The supplemental budget, really a mid-course correction in the state’s two-year budget cycle, leaves the state with about $30.5 billion in spending.

Republicans, meanwhile, who have beating the drum against tax increases this session, said the spending plan will worsen the state’s economy, and that the Democrats have made only token efforts to reduce the size of state government.

            Senate Democrats have yet to pass a tax plan, but they are further along than their counterparts in the House, who have not yet even proposed one. The Senate’s spending plan will require $918 million in new taxes, and Senate Democrats are proposing an increase in the state’s cigarette and sales taxes, plus a $500 million attack on business tax exemptions.

            The Senate budget passed on a largely party-line vote, 25-19, with a few Democrats crossing over to vote with Republicans against the measure. The House still must pass its own proposal, and then budget writers will go behind closed doors to negotiate their differences.

            Not Pretty But it Ain’t Ugly

            Sen. Margarita Prentice, D-Seattle, chairwoman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said the spending plan strikes a good balance. It is a follow-up to last year’s budget, which forced lawmakers to grapple with an unprecedented $9 billion shortfall, and caused them to make a little over $3 billion in cuts to actual spending. This budget would add about $1 billion to the cuts enacted last year. 

“This is an ugly time, but thanks to the collective work of the members of the Senate and the members of the [Ways and Means] committee last night as we painstakingly worked, we’re not offering an ugly budget,” said Margarita Prentice, chairwoman of the budget-writing panel.

            “This is a positive budget. It is a budget that will get our communities through and beyond this recession. The public wants to see cuts in state spending. Our colleges, our universities and our economic future is at risk. Our budget preserves numerous core commitments that were cut in Gov. Christine Gregoire’s all-cuts budget, most importantly in the areas of K-12, early education and higher education. That is a value I know every person in this room shares. This budget will protect Washington’s economic future and quality of life.”

            The Senate spending plan, like the one advanced in the House, retains some of the state’s signature programs, like the Basic Health Plan, college financial and the Working Connections program, which provides childcare for the working poor.

            Republicans Have Field Day

            Republicans didn’t have the votes to change the outcome, but they found plenty of things to criticize. One big issue, they said, was that the Senate Democrats still haven’t voted on a tax package. And it doesn’t make much sense to pass a budget if the state doesn’t have the money to pay for it.

Already there are some gaping holes emerging in the plan that the Senate Democrats announced earlier in the week. The Senate, for instance, announced plans to end the trade-in tax credit that is the foundation of the car business. That would save the state $92 million, but has drawn fire from car dealers statewide. After a back-room session in which several members expressed opposition, Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said that idea was likely to be dropped. But Democrats don’t have a plan to replace the money.

            Passing a budget before there is a plan to pay for it seems a bit backwards, said Sen. Joseph Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, the Senate Republican budget chief. “I think this budget is a little of the cart before the horse,” he said. “While the governor’s all-cuts budget may not have been real interesting to a lot of folks, what we have here is a budget that spends one-and-a-half billion dollars more than we have.”

            And then, of course, there’s the matter of a tax increase in the middle of a recession. Republicans have been hammering away on that one all year. They spent 16 hours on the topic when they debated the suspension of Initiative 960, which would have made it all but impossible to raise taxes. This wasn’t the final debate, either. Lawmakers will get another chance when the final budget agreement comes before the Legislature. So much of Saturday’s debate was muted by comparison.

            But Cheryl Pflug, R-Maple Valley managed to get off a zinger:

            “We have seen this state marched steadily to the brink of financial ruin, and it would appear from this budget that the plan now is to jump.”

            Picking Apart the Details

            There was something in the budget for every Republican to hate.

            Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, pointed out that it contains $200,000 for the public financing of supreme court justices’ campaigns. “I can’t believe we’re putting in public-financed races in the state of Washington in a year when we don’t have any money. We’re going to come up with $200,000 to public fully fund Supreme Court races and bring the government into the issue of our elections. This is wrong and shouldn’t happen.”

            Meanwhile, state Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, was incensed by a $250,000 study of school-district consolidation. Schoesler said he couldn’t understand why the state needs to study a matter he said has been studied and restudied countless times, and would ultimately cause long bus rides for students in rural districts such as his. Schoesler offered an amendment that would have diverted the money to school-lunch programs, but it was shot down by the Democrats. “I say that if we have a quarter-million dollars to add to the budget, let’s put it to something that helps kids this year more than yet another study,” he said.

            Some Republicans denounced the budget not because it cut too little, but because it cut programs in their districts. Those programs include prison facilities and residential habilitation centers that serve retarded adults.

            State Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, said, “I am very concerned that this budget hurts the most vulnerable in our society and the people that need help the most.”

            Benton is a candidate for U.S. Senate this year in the race against Democrat Patty Murray.

            Nothing is Final

Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said that lawmakers may be forced to cut more, depending on the tax deal they strike. “In the end a balanced approach and a responsible and humane and compassionate approach that protects our core values requires that we do both reductions and reforms and ultimately revenues, and over the next week that is the very difficult task ahead of us. Make no mistake about it. If we cannot succeed in that task, then this budget will be the high-water mark and further cuts will be made, because we will balance the budget before we leave Olympia.”