The regular legislative session ended last night without agreement on the two-year operating budget. Our budget team knew coming in that this was going to be a tough year to reach agreement because:
• We’ve cut $12 billion from state services in the last five years
• Our economy is just starting to come out of the Great Recession and revenue is not nearly where it would have been in normal economic conditions.
• The Supreme Court issued the McCleary school-funding decision that added at least another $1.3 billion to our problem statement.
• There is a whole new budget team in the Senate.
But the lack of an operating budget doesn’t reflect the whole story of the just-ended session. Despite the changing leadership in the Senate, we achieved a great number of successes for the people of Washington. Already on the Governor’s desk are bills that will:
• Continue work on important transportation projects under way and maintain thousands of jobs across the state. (Transportation budget)
• Improve education and increase accountability in our schools.
• Compensate people who are wrongfully sent to prison.
• Give foster children more educational opportunities.
• Protect workers’ privacy.
• Protect victims of stalking from further harassment.
• Increase public safety from offenders who are mentally ill.
• And much, much more.
Here in the House, we also passed a responsible, sustainable, balanced operating budget that meets our school-funding obligations and maintains vital services for our most vulnerable people. In fact, we passed the only operating budget the Governor said he would sign.
The special session starts in two weeks, but our budget writers will be back at work tomorrow continuing to work for a final budget that represents the core values of Washington: educating our kids, building our economy, and protecting our children, elderly, and people with disabilities.