What’s in the state budget “deal”, anyway?
OLYMPIA -- There was very little information on the 2013-15 operating budget that was announced Thursday, and only "broad-brush" details emerged during the day.
Late last night, however, the Legislature got the whole enchilada up on the budget website. Plenty of time for everyone to read it before this morning's 8:30 a.m. hearing in the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
Not to worry, though, Chairman Andy Hill assured folks who showed up bright and early for the hearing. The budget is really just a "compilation of bills that have already been heard in this committee" -- with the exception of a couple of tax exemptions for renewable energy projects.
Lobbyists who had gathered for what is likely to be their last big committee hearing of 2012 were mostly complimentary of the latest incarnation of a spending plan, which does not remove most of the tax credits and exemptions for businesses that some legislators had targeted at the beginning of the year.
