House Budget Proposals Released

There are only 11 days left in the legislative session, and we have a lot to accomplish before we can head back home.

At the top of that list is finalizing the three budgets that keep the wheels turning in Washington and invest in our future: the operating, capital, and transportation budgets.

When the transportation budget passed out of the House yesterday, I brought forward an amendment to ensure that savings on the North South Corridor be retained and used for current and future phases of the project. You can listen to my remarks here.

My most recent video update provides a brief overview of these budgets and where we are in the process. It’s a short video, so I encourage you to check it out!

Budget Basics

I’d like to give you a little background about these three budgets–what they are and what they mean for our state.

• The Operating Budget funds the day-to-day operations of the state government. This is the budget that supports important services like education, corrections, and the social safety net.
• The Capital Budget is used to invest in the long-term infrastructure of our state. This is how we acquire and maintain buildings and assets such as schools, higher education facilities, public lands, and community development projects.
• The Transportation Budget supports activities such as designing and maintaining roads and public transport.

The House rolled out our three proposals last week. The operating budget passed out of the House on Friday, the transportation budget passed out yesterday, and we are currently working on passing our capital budget proposal out of the House. At that point, it is up to the budget writers from the House and Senate to negotiate a final budget that both chambers can agree on.

Fairness in the Budget

Every two years, our budget writers carefully decide where to spend taxpayer dollars, but only recently have they begun looking at the other side of the equation – tax exemptions.  Now, though, a citizens’ commission, the state’s expert audit and review committee, and the House Finance Committee are all reviewing the 640 tax exemptions, breaks, and loopholes in our state’s tax code.

It’s estimated these exemptions cost about $24 billion each biennium.  Many of them have been on the books, unexamined, since the 1930s. Lawmakers want to know, do they still make sense? Do they actually create the jobs they were intended to?

And, most importantly, are they more critical to our state than making sure our kids get the education we want them to have?

Based on the answers to some of those questions, the House has proposed a series of reforms that will shift tax dollars from unneeded exemptions to funding education – our paramount duty. These reforms have allowed the House to craft an operating budget that fully funds education while protecting our most vulnerable.

Operating Budget Highlights

A lot of households are struggling right now, and people are tired of cuts to core services. Every day I hear from people from Spokane, like the long-term care providers pictured above, that want us to craft a budget that protects the needs of our community. Our community wants a fair budget that cuts inefficient tax loopholes before making deeper cuts to the services that keep our community strong.

The House Operating Budget Proposal is a responsible budget that reflects our values. This proposal:

• Fully Funds K-12 education;
• Expands healthcare to over 280,000 more people by expanding Medicaid, saving $265 million;
• Protects care for vulnerable seniors, the disabled, and at-risk kids; and

  

• Promotes jobs and economic opportunity.

Our plan also:

• Invests in early learning;
• Reduces class sizes in K-3;
• Puts more money into high-demand college degrees; and
• Helps small business with costs by implementing the health care exchange, giving business owners and employees affordable and portable options for health coverage.

You can learn more about the proposal here and here.

What type of budget do you think is fair for our state and good for our community? I would like to hear your thoughts. Feel free to send me an email or call my office at 360-786-7888.

Best Regards,

Representative Marcus Riccelli
3rd Legislative District – Spokane