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

The Senate’s proposed operating budget comes out in a mere two hours. It’s the beginning of a very budget-centric week. Here’s a look at our programming:

LIVE this morning at 10:30 with the Senate Democrats’ budget roll-out, and at noon with the House transportation budget unveiling.

LIVE Tuesday morning 10 a.m., when House Democrats roll out their version of the budget.

Monday and Tuesday afternoons we’ll be LIVE with House and Senate committee public hearings on the budgets.

Wednesday at 7 p.m. The Impact with Jennifer Huntley will focus exclusively on detailing the House and Senate budgets.

Thursday at 7 p.m. on Inside Olympia host Austin Jenkins interviews House Speaker Frank Chopp.

Watch all of this on TVW or at tvw.org.

In addition to live coverage, I’ll also be blogging here and posting the shows here, too. As for live-blogging, standard conditions apply: I’ll be at the press conferences posting as much of what they say as I can.

The House is debating the bill on how to spend federal stimulus money on transportation projects now.

Representative Judy Clibborn said the state received the money yesterday, and that the swift passage of the bill is a sign of how prepared the state is. She said the bill would improve critical roads across the state and provide jobs for many Washingtonians.

Representative Doug Ericksen said he’s voting against it because voters have already approved a gas tax to pay for some of the projects now being paid for with stimulus money. He said “using it to backfill promises” is evidence of an ineffective state and transportation department.

The debate continues…

Tags: federal stimulus, transportation

Right now on TVW, the Senate Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee is getting a capital budget briefing. They’ll also cover the proposed-without-a-location UW North campus.

The official schedule says they’ll hear about “consensus efforts.” Is there a consensus? Tune in to find out. Or keep checking back.

Tags: Higher Education, UW

The Senate Ways & Means Committee has updated tomorrow’s calendar to include HB 1694 — the early savings bill passed by the House just a few hours ago.

It’s a public hearing. Senate Hearing Room 4 at 3:30 p.m.

TVW will air it live.

Tags: Budget, Senate

Gov. Chris Gregoire issued a statement about the Senate’s bill to cut about $105 million in spending. She said the Senate “acted quickly to pass additional savings” and that she wants “to make certain the plan allows enough flexibility to adequately staff vital state functions.”

“It will take all of us to solve this budget problem, so I am pleased to hear the House is working to pass its supplemental budget in the coming days.”

Tags: Budget, Governor, House, Senate

I just got a press release from the office of Rep. Marko Liias
telling me that Mike McCready, guitarist for Pearl Jam, and his wife, Ashley O’Connor, will be here on Thursday to testify on a bill.

The bill would allow those with certain conditions — like Crohn’s, which McCready has — to use employer restrooms in certain conditions.

Here is HB 1138. And here is McCready’s bio. Study up.

Tags: Add new tag, Domestic partnership

The press conference to announce the “everything but marriage” bill just started.

Rep. Jamie Pedersen said the bill would extend about 300 remaining rights and responsibilities of marriage to couples in domestic partnerships.

Watch live on TVW now.

One couple from Tacoma spoke: One partner is a police officer, and they said that, if this bill passes and if anything were to happen to her in the line of duty, she knows her partner would get the same benefits as another officer’s spouse.

Tags: Domestic partnerships, House, Senate

The Senate unanimously passed the “belt-tightening” budget measure, Senate Bill 5460, to save an additional $105 million from the state budget today. The bill now heads to the House.

Tags: Budget, Senate

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