Washington Senate approves supplemental budget
The Washington state Senate today (Friday) approved a supplemental budget that spends some of the state’s million-and-a-half dollars in surplus tax revenue.
Last year the legislature approved a budget that has the state spending about 26-billion dollars between 2005 and 2007. The budget approved Friday adds about 600-million more.
Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown says the economy is strong, providing the state with enough tax money to replace funding for programs that have been cut during the last few years.
“You got to go back at least four years to tell the true story of this budget,” Brown said. “And, believe me, I know because four years ago, I stood here and we cut a billion dollars. And we cut it from human services and we cut it from education and we cut it from seniors and we cut it from the developmentally disabled. We did that because we had to. And in this budget, we are able to make some gains in all these areas.”
The senator from Spokane rebutted charges from Republicans that aggressive spending this year will put the state in poor fiscal position next year. Brown says this supplemental budget puts about 950-million dollars into various state reserve accounts, about a third of that into the state pension system.
Brown’s side prevailed, 26-to-19, with Democrats providing all the votes. Vancouver Republican Joe Zarelli says supplemental budgets are meant to fix immediate needs. He says this goes far beyond that.
“And Mr. President, what we do in this is that we try to buy everything that we haven’t been able to buy, that delayed gratification that we haven’t been able to experience for the last several years, all comes to fruition in a supplemental budget.”
The budget offers and extends tax breaks for aerospace, timber and some agriculture-related businesses.Democrats in the state House plan to produce their own budget next week.