Budget Highlights

Highlights of the proposed 1998 supplemental budget Gov. Gary Locke will offer the Legislature:

Education

Create the Washington Reading Corps, which relies on volunteers to tutor young students ($25 million).

Restore school-to-work grants ($1.4 million) and pay for enrollment in independent “charter” schools ($1.3 million).

Provide incentives for teachers to reach national certification standards, including a $3,000 bonus ($230,000).

Families

Eliminate payment of the annual Motor Vehicle Excise Tax on 1.8 million vehicles and cut it by $35 per year on another 2.7 million vehicles ($102 million).

Provide business-and-occupation tax credits for businesses that contribute toward employees’ training and child-care expenses ($15 million).

Offer a B&O tax credit to lending institutions that donate to the state’s affordable housing program ($10 million).

Improve farmworker housing ($2 million).

Boost enrollment in the Basic Health Plan, which provides health care for the working poor ($14.6 million).

Expand availability of in-home and community-based care for the elderly and disabled ($17.9 million).

Economy

Increase the B&O tax credit for small businesses ($10.8 million).

Tax cuts for biotech and software industries ($5.6 million).

Help economically distressed counties provide water, sewer and roads to support new business investment ($14.9 million). Make businesses that invest in such areas eligible for B&O, property and sales tax exemptions ($200,000).

Transportation

Increase the gas tax from 23 cents to 28 cents to raise $322 million for state construction projects and $46 million for local projects. The governor’s 5-year plan would spend the revenue on high-occupancy vehicle lanes, bridge repairs, rail crossings and various highway safety improvements.

Build new HOV lanes ($67 million).

Relieve congestion on highways around the state ($89 million).

Begin construction of a new passenger-only ferry ($2 million).

Public safety

Move and expand the Special Commitment Center, which houses dangerous sex offenders, to the McNeil Island prison ($3.5 million).

Expand a program that provides secure residential settings and 24-hour supervision for developmentally disabled people with a history of dangerous behavior ($9.3 million).

Help counties deal with juvenile delinquency and truancy as required by the “Becca” bill of 1995 ($11 million).

Environment

Create a “salmon team” to develop a conservation strategy ($891,000) and assist local watershed efforts to restore steelhead on the lower Columbia ($2.1 million).

Savings

Keep $583 million in reserves.