Gregoire lobbies for next budget’s stimulus
JOSEPH TURNER; The News Tribune
Washington state doesn’t need a second round of federal money to stimulate the economy right now, Gov. Chris Gregoire told a Tacoma audience Wednesday. But it will in a couple of years, she said.
The governor, who was speaking to about 150 people at a Tacoma City Club luncheon, said Washington has committed to spend less than one-fourth of the billions of dollars the state will be getting over the next two years. And it will take time to put the rest of that money to work.
However, “what keeps me up at night,” she said, is the thought that come 2011-13, all that federal money will have been spent, and the prospect of she and the Legislature “having to make up the $4.5 billion that we got from the feds this time – and it won’t be there when it’s needed.
“So, we need a second round,” she said.
The governor was responding to a question by Kathleen Deakins, a partner in the Jacobsen Ray public relations firm, who noted that state colleges had to absorb a 21 percent budget cut for 2009-11. She wanted to know what the state could do to fund higher education.
Gregoire said she has told President Barack Obama’s administration and Congress that “if you abandon the states, then you’re going to see an economic crisis like you’ve never seen.”
Washington is getting $4.5 billion for its two-year operating budget, largely for Medicaid and public schools. Overall, the state is receiving close to $8 billion, which puts it at the top of the list in terms of how much money it’s getting per person in the state – a fact that sets her up for “guff” from her fellow governors, Gregoire said.
But $2 billion of that will be spent by the federal government at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and won’t help state finances, she noted. “The point is, we did get our fair share,” Gregoire said. “It has helped us end our economic slide.”
The total nationwide of this federal economic stimulus package was $787 billion.
Gregoire said Pierce County is getting about 20 percent of the $492 million the state received for transportation projects. The largest chunk of that local money is $70 million to build carpool lanes on Interstate 5 from the King County line to the Port of Tacoma interchange.
Pierce County also stands to get an additional $125 million for two rail projects that are part of the state’s application for $1 billion in funding. The two projects would improve railroad tracks to speed up passenger and freight rail service, including partial funding for an overpass on Pacific Avenue for Sounder trains.
The state will find out by Oct. 1 if it will receive the rail money.
Joseph Turner: 360-786-1826
joe. turner@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/politics
MORE ON POLIBUZZ
To hear what the governor told the Tacoma City Club about Initiative 1033, Referendum 71, national health care reform and other topics, go online to
blog.thenewstribune.com/ politics.
