The state’s economic realities seem to have fallen on deaf ears in the House, where budget writers trotted out a doozy of a spending plan last week.
Their proposed supplemental budget would add $287 million in spending to the current two-year budget — $53 million more than Gov. Chris Gregoire requested before state revenues took a big turn for the worse.
Gregoire’s budget assumed a $1.4 billion surplus. Days before the House released its budget, state lawmakers were told to expect a much smaller surplus, something in the neighborhood of $950 million.
The gloomy economic forecast, coupled with a $98 million increase in the demand for basic government services, should have been cause for belt-tightening. But instead of trimming expenses, House lawmakers want to spend more.
Their budget would leave just $750 million in the bank to help ride out the economic downturn – and most of it would be stashed in the state’s rainy-day fund that is difficult to tap by design.
Compare that to Gregoire’s opening offer of a $1.2 billion reserve. The House proposes absorbing nearly all of the $522 million hit from reduced revenues and higher caseloads by lowering the bar on savings.
The House did make a strained attempt to be frugal. The proposed budget it released Wednesday cut funding for all-day kindergarten at struggling public schools to give teachers and other schools workers a bigger pay raise.
But even that puny $16 million cut was short-lived. The next day, perhaps after House leaders realized how bad it looks to throw kindergartners under the bus to make the teachers union happy, they backed down. Now they pledge to leave kindergarten funding intact and to give teachers bigger raises.
The trend line isn’t encouraging, but fortunately budget negotiations are just beginning. The Senate is due to deliver its budget this week.
Dare taxpayers hope for a repeat performance of last year when senators, with some help from a sunny revenue forecast, bested both the House and governor by leaving more money on the table? Let’s hope so. Spend more, save less is not a respectable mantra for state government.
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