House passes 2015-17 budget, Senate debate continues
OLYMPIA – Both chambers of the Legislature debated budgets worth tens of billions of dollars over the next two years with arguments over whether they were just directing spending or making statements about the future of the state and its values.
House Democrats passed their $38.8 billion budget, which would need some new taxes to pay for all the programs and salaries it covers, on a 51-47 party line vote.
It would put more youngsters in early learning programs, fix problems in mental health and social service programs, and comply with court orders to improve public schools, Appropriations Committee Chairman Ross Hunter, D-Medina said. “This is a strong investment package in fixing these problems in the state.”
To make those investments, it is “above board in every way” by relying on tax increases to pay for those fixes, Rep. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle, said. Among the tax increases House Democrats are proposing is a capital gains tax on some investment returns above $25,000.
But those taxes haven’t been put to a vote and can’t be counted on, Rep. Terry Nealey, R-Dayton, argued. “We’re attempting to pass a hollow budget.”
It doesn’t go far enough to help college students and their families, said several Republicans. Although the House Democrats’ budget freezes tuition at state colleges and universities, House Republicans prefer a spending plan in the Senate that cuts tuition over two years by as much as 25 percent and ties it to the state’s average wage, and tried unsuccessfully to add that to House plan.
“The budget isn’t about numbers as much as it is about a narrative. It’s about the future…how we step from here to there,” Rep. Kevin Parker, R-Spokane.
The Senate had more trouble stepping through its budget as the two parties spent much of the morning and afternoon in meetings and began their debate with a fight over a parliamentary rule that would required a 60 percent majority to approve any amendment to the budget Majority Republicans released Tuesday and pushed through the Ways and Means Committee the Wednesday evening.
