State budget deal cuts $479 million, but giant gap remains

The House budget deal being unveiled this morning in Olympia shrinks a $2 billion budget gap by about $479 million with a large share coming from new revenues. Other early-action savings come from slews of nips and tucks throughout the state’s two-year spending plan, which lawmakers hope to pass this week.

JORDAN SCHRADER AND BRAD SHANNON; staff writers

Published: 12/12/11 11:34 am

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The House budget deal being unveiled this morning in Olympia shrinks a $2 billion budget gap by about $479 million with a large share coming from new revenues. Other early-action savings come from slews of nips and tucks throughout the state’s two-year spending plan, which lawmakers hope to pass this week.

The actual text and details for the budget document, dubbed House Bill 2058, are due later this morning. The House Ways and Means Committee plans to hear it at 3:30 this afternoon.

We’ll have more precise figures later, but the biggest dollar adjustments appear to be in the form of new revenues – including the formal counting of $82 million in unspent money from the previous biennium and another $50.6 million in new revenue from quicker conversions of unclaimed property by the Department of Revenue.

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