Here’s what Rep. Gary Alexander’s office sent out on his reaction to the House budget. Alexander is the ranking Republican on the Ways & Means Committee:

“Washington citizens need long-term leadership, not short-term fixes. Placing a Band-Aid on our budget problems in hopes of a better economy in the future, or for voter-approved tax increases down the road, is the wrong approach.

“It appears House Democrat budget writers followed a similar formula to their Senate Democrat counterparts in that they rely entirely too much upon one-time state and federal money. They propose to spend $5 billion that we know will not be available the next time we sit down to write a budget. What happens then? We’re delaying the inevitable and setting ourselves up for more problems tomorrow by not exercising true leadership today.

“I’m also dismayed at the cavalier attitude the majority party is showing in regards to referencing and spending federal tax dollars. I think we need to remember that no government — local, state or federal — has any money of its own. It all comes from taxpayers at some point. It seems their attitude is to thank President Obama for his generosity at the taxpayers’ expense because he helped cover the mistakes they made in the last four years of unfettered spending.

“We’re settling for the easy way out if we just focus on the reductions being made and not on the opportunity we have to make state government more accountable, more efficient and more responsible to the people.

“Yes, both the House and Senate budgets made cuts. But the families in our state are doing much more than just cutting things in their own budgets to get by. Families are prioritizing their needs, they’re finding different ways to get things done, and they’re changing the way they go about their daily routines to streamline their own finances. Families realize that ‘business as usual’ won’t work for them. Shouldn’t state government do the same?

“I said it when the Senate released their budget and I’ll say it again: Borrowing against our future, relying upon one-time money, and hoping for a tax increase at the ballot is not the type of leadership our state needs right now.”

Tags: Budget

Sen. Joseph Zarelli, on the budget:

“There are two questions to ask about the Senate Democrat budget: what are the priorities, and where would this put our state in two years?

“This is not an ‘all-cuts’ budget because it would require tax increases – but even if it was all-cuts, that alone doesn’t make it acceptable. Our families are expected to realign their priorities when times are difficult, yet the Senate Democrats are choosing to increase K-12 classroom sizes so they can allocate more taxpayer dollars for state-employee health care, cut access to our colleges and universities in favor of continuing health care for illegal immigrants, and reduce support for nursing homes instead of freezing wages for all state employees.

“They point to spending reductions for the Basic Health Plan and General Assistance-Unemployable program, but those are only temporary cuts when what we need are reforms that would bring long-term efficiencies.

“The state expects to take in as much revenue in the next two years as it will in this biennium, so it really does come down to priorities. Senate Republicans have shown how the Legislature could produce a budget that is balanced without higher taxes, protects services for the most vulnerable and does not repeat the mistake of relying on gimmicks or one-time money. Unfortunately the Senate Democrat proposal falls short on all of those fronts. It does almost nothing to produce the kind of farsighted change Olympia and our taxpayers badly need.

“Instead of making policy adjustments that will generate substantial ongoing savings, this proposal is about punting and doing temporary backfill that would put off the problem for another two years. It keeps spending artificially high by playing about 3 billion dollars in federal money plus some ill-advised fund transfers that include a raid on the capital budget.

“It’s not whether you take the federal money, it’s how you spend it. These are dollars we can only spend once – but this budget would use them to maintain programs and services. That is exactly the approach which started our state down the road to a deficit. Back out the one-time dollars and it’s clear how this budget sets the stage for a repeat of where we are now.

“We will be asked what we would do differently. The answer is we already tried – by repeatedly encouraging the majority party to make timely spending reductions that would have resulted in lasting savings to taxpayers, and sharing our ideas for building the kind of budget our state truly needs. Unfortunately the leaders of the majority party didn’t heed our warnings against overspending, and it doesn’t look now like they’ve taken our suggestions for long-term fixes either.

“The Senate Democrats could have made policy changes months ago that would have established a new baseline for state spending and reduced the size of the budget gap by billions of dollars. By failing to act earlier they have almost guaranteed we will be back in this position again in 2011.”

Tags: Budget

Rep. Gary Alexander sent out a reaction to the Senate Democrats’ budget.

Here’s what he had to say:
“The Senate’s solution to closing the state’s nearly-$9 billion budget shortfall is shortsighted, relies too much on one-time money, attempts to bait the public into buying off on a tax increase, and sets us up for budget shortfalls again in the near future.

“It seems Senate budget writers still don’t get it. While Washington families are making do with less, state government is going to get more. This next biennium’s budget actually spends more money than the last one when you add the one-time funding from the federal stimulus and capital budget transfers.

“Instead of streamlining government and delivering services more efficiently and effectively, the Senate proposes to use nearly $5 billion in one-time federal and state money to backfill the overspending of the last four years. Because we’re not actually making systemic changes to the process, we’re going to be right back in the same situation in the very immediate future.

“The Senate proposes to borrow money for operating expenses by transferring capital budget dollars to the operating budget. The reduction in capital budget money will then be backfilled by more bonding. In essence, we’re placing daily expenses on the state’s credit card which is a horrible and shortsighted budgeting practice. This sets us up for deficit spending down the road.

“Finally, making the most dramatic cuts in K-12 education is, I believe, a way of making the most noise possible with the budget reductions as a way to convince the public that a tax increase for education is needed. This is not so. We can balance the budget, fund education and protect our most vulnerable without raising taxes on hard-working families.

“Borrowing against our future, relying upon one-time money, and hoping for a tax increase at the ballot is not the type of leadership our state needs right now.”

Stay tuned for another take on the budget: Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn.

Tags: Budget

More on this: Mark your calendars for 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 19. That’s when the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council will give the preliminary forecast.

The formal forecast will still be a month later, on March 19.

Two things:
1. They’re expecting a lot of people — Hearing rooms A, B and C have been reserved for the announcement.
2. They don’t sound like they’re expecting things to get better – the forecast is to provide the Legislature “with early guidance regarding the impact of deteriorating economic conditions…”

Tags: Budget, Revenue forecast

Thursday at 7 p.m. TVW’s Inside Olympia will look back at the last time the budget was this bad.

Host Austin Jenkins will talk with then-Gov. John Spellman as well as Republican House Speaker Bill Polk and House Minority (Democratic) Leader Wayne Ehlers. It ought to be a very interesting conversation.

Background: In Nov. 1979, Washington voters approved a Constitutional amendment to require the Legislature to meet annually. (Before then, it was a once-per-two-years affair.) According to the official legislative history, the following session, in Jan. 1980, was virtually a non-event.

In Nov. 1980, Republicans took control of the House, Democrats had a 25-24 lead in the Senate and Gov. Dixy Lee Ray was defeated.

And then: The state suddenly faced a budget shortfall of $1 billion.

If session this year has been stressful for you, reading this could give you heartburn (speaking from experience): In the middle of budget negotiations, a scale-tipping Senate Democrat switched parties, (more…)

Tags: Budget, Democrats, Inside Olympia, Republicans, taxes

Dorn’s press conference is playing on TVW right now. Go. Watch.

Not convinced? Here’s what Dorn just said on the technology:
“I don’t have to tell print journalists that the use of technology will rock your world. ”

And now for more on Dorn’s power to change the WASL without legislative approval: According to the draft schedule, there’s a 10 a.m. hearing next Tuesday when Dorn has the stage during a work session to present his “action plan” for the WASL.

We’ll have that live. Also, I’ll very soon have a clip where Dorn foreshadows this very day.

Tags: Dorn, WASL

Rep. Richard DeBolt just took the stage at a Republican press conference to offer their opinion on the Governor’s inaugural address.

He said he was recently talking to someone in his community who asked what the state was going to do since it’s out of money. He told the woman that the state actually has 5 percent more than last year.

Sen. Mike Hewitt, Republican leader in the Senate, said the state is largely to blame for the budget crisis because of overspending. He said his caucus supports Gregoire’s plan for sparking private sector business and reform the government.

(Gregoire, for her part, has said the state is mostly the victim of the national economy. “We all know our state didn’t make this economic crisis, and we all know we can’t unilaterally solve it,” she said today.)

“Those are things that we’ve talked about for years.”

Next up: Rep. Gary Alexander, a Republican from Olympia.

“I expected to see more dialogue in terms of reducing the budget,” he said. He said the Legislature needs to get to work cutting from the supplemental budget because every dollar cut from the last six months of this budget saves more in the long term. Read more on that in a post to come very soon, or here.

Sen. Joe Zarelli says: “The message that I’ve been trying to take to Sen. Brown and others in the majority is, even if you do decide to pursue more revenue, you’ve still got a sizable problem,” he said.

Zarelli said that Republicans look forward to working with Democrats to solve this problem, but “in the end of the day, they’re the majority party and they can choose the direction,” he said.

Tags: Budget, Governor, inauguration, Republicans

Rep. Dan Kristiansen, a Republican from Snohomish, is on TVW (and www.tvw.org) right now.

His message: In the last four years, majority Democrats have increased government spending by more than 33 percent.

“This is poor stewardship of taxpayer dollars.”

He said that’s like expecting to get a 33 percent pay raise, spending accordingly and then only getting a 5 percent raise.

“We have to come together as a Legislature, united to help the people.”

He said Republicans agree with one aspect of Gov. Gregoire’s budget: No tax increases.

He said Republicans are committed to “doing what is right, not what is political.” He said that means cutting spending and allowing the free market to take over, not government.

Tags: Governor, inauguration, Republican

At noon, I’ll be watching the Governor’s inaugural address to the House and Senate. Join me — and feel free to e-mail in any questions you have about what she’s saying: nikis@tvw.org.

At 7 p.m., you should plan on watching The Impact. This week’s show will feature an interview with Gov. Chris Gregoire, a profile on the big issues lawmakers plan to tackle this session, and a segment with top legislators in the House and Senate answering your questions on the budget.

And when you’re done at the Inaugural Ball, come back home and tune into the 11 p.m. Legislative Review show. Today, I’ll recap the Governor’s address, cover her economic development proposals and drop in on the House Ways & Means committee’s continued public hearings on the proposed budget. I also have my eye on the 1:30 p.m. Higher Education Committee, where they will discuss federal and state actions in higher eduction.

Tags: Governor, Higher Education, The Impact, TVW

- The Alaskan Way Viaduct: Governor Gregoire announced this morning that she — and a coalition of local lawmakers — are recommending that a deep-bore tunnel will replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Cost: $4.24 billion. The Legislature will have to approve the option.

- These hearings.

- The Senate will unroll a “middle class jobs package” today at 12:45.

- All this and more. Look for a Viaduct update soon. (And watch TVW at 7 p.m. for the full press conference.)

Tags: Alaskan Way, Governor, Viaduct