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Think the latest round of snow has been tough? It’s nothing compared to the storm area legislators feel they are in for in Olympia this year.
By now, lawmakers have had a couple of weeks to digest Gov. Christine Gregoire’s $30.5 billion state budget for the 2009-11 biennium. They’ve also heard the complaints that – despite procrastinations that state revenues will get worse before they get better – the cuts go too far. Others say the proposed budget, which won’t raise taxes, needs to take a scalpel to bloated state offices, not programs that help individuals.
However it shakes out, the budget will dominate discussion throughout the entire 105-day session.
“It’s going to be all about the budget,” said Larry Crouse, 4th District representative from Spokane Valley. “I can’t imagine we’ll have time for anything else.”
Both Crouse and state Sen. Bob McCaslin have been around Olympia long enough (Crouse was first elected in 1994, McCaslin in 1980) to know that any predictions made before January don’t often amount to much.
“We’ll see what happens when we get over there,” McCaslin said, adding that he planned to be at the Capitol by Jan. 10, two days before the session begins.
As it stands, there is a question mark of approximately $5 billion between what the state expects to collect over the next two years and what it has laid out to spend at services at present levels. Since the state Constitution calls for a balanced budget, Gregoire’s proposed budget hits everyone hard, from higher education to transportation.
But once the budget addresses nondiscretionary items – debt service for bonds, for example, must be paid, along with basic education from kindergarten through 12th grade – that’s where local legislators think there might be some room to get creative.
For instance, McCaslin says “there’s not a lot we can do” but cut some services, but the state government also has brought on between 5,000 and 6,000 employees that may or may not be necessary.
“Everything needs to be looked at,” he said.
“I would like to see some different cuts,” Crouse added. “We will have that dialogue.”
The governor is reluctant to raise taxes as it might make the current recessionary climate that much worse. If people are overtaxed, the logic goes, they won’t spend. And that’s what needs to happen to get the economy going again.
But Crouse says Gregoire’s promise not to raise taxes may be just that: a promise.
“I’d be surprised if we get out of Olympia without raising taxes,” he said.
“We’ll do what we can not to. That’s what people elected us to do.”
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By
Mike Huffman
