Budget score card

OLYMPIA – With a budget deal that includes $7 million to fix up minor league baseball parks, Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown didn’t have to reach far Tuesday to find a budget metaphor.

“We hit a home run,” she said.

The House and Senate compromise budgets inked Tuesday include money for Spokane’s figure skating bid, to help clean up the Spokane River and to build a biodiesel plant in Spokane Valley.

“For a supplemental budget, there’s as much in there as I’ve probably ever seen,” said Rep. Alex Wood, D-Spokane. “I’m ready to go home.”

In Pullman, Washington State University can start work on its top budget priority: a high-tech science lab. In Kettle Falls, the state will contribute $100,000 to a park. In Spokane, more state dollars will go to mental health care and a local food bank will get state-paid refrigeration equipment.

“I think there is something for every group of advocates for every corner of the state,” said Rep. Timm Ormsby, D-Spokane.

Lawmakers had the luxury of saying “yes” to a lot of requests this year, due to a $1.6 billion state surplus fueled largely by real estate taxes and fees. But the flush times, Brown and other legislative leaders warned repeatedly, are not likely to last.

As a result, the supplemental operating budget they agreed to Tuesday will spend $522 million more this year, particularly in education, health care, low-income housing and mental health.

But $935 million more – part of the $1.6 billion state surplus this year – goes into savings for the next budget cycle.

“Notice how cautious we were,” said House Budget Chairwoman Helen Sommers. “We have $935 million in savings. I have never seen that before. Fiscal conservatives reigned here.”

Hogwash, said Republicans. They frowned at the $522 million in new spending halfway through the state’s two-year budget cycle. And they wanted to return more of the surplus to taxpayers via tax breaks.

“Spending limits for the Democrats seem to have no relevance,” said Rep. Gary Alexander, R-Olympia.

“This is not what I call fiscally responsible,” said Rep. Glenn Anderson, R-Fall City.

Final debate and voting on the budgets are slated for today. Lawmakers are trying to wrap up this year’s 60-day legislative session, scheduled to end Thursday, a day early.

Local projects and programs:

“ $10 million for Washington State University to start construction on a $63 million bioscience lab complex.

“ $2 million for repairs to Avista Stadium, part of $7 million for the state’s five minor-league baseball teams.

“We financed stadiums in Seattle – one baseball, one football,” said Brown. “And these five communities provide affordable family entertainment. You can go to a ballgame and it doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg.”

“ $2 million to the Spokane County Conservation District for a biodiesel seed-crushing facility in Spokane Valley. Another $2.5 million is slated for a similar project by the Public Development Authority in Odessa.

“ $1.1 million toward cleanup of the Spokane River, plus another $1.2 million to speed up the cleanup of toxic contamination in the area.

“ $1.3 million for more staff at Eastern State Hospital’s legal offender unit, which evaluates and treats mentally ill criminal defendants.

“ $1 million for WSU’s Institute for Systems Medicine, a Spokane biomedical research program.

“ $800,000 for an agricultural weather network at WSU.

“ $100,000 for Spokane’s 2007 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, plus a promise of $500,000 in the next budget if the city wins its bid to host the 2009 world championships.

“ $520,000 to settle a Spokane County claim against the Department of Social and Health Services. The lawsuit is over Medicaid reimbursements that the state denied the county in the late 1990s. The state has acknowledged wrongly canceling some Medicaid coverage for people who left welfare, even though they still qualified for Medicaid.

“ $481,000 to move a state National Guard unit from Spokane airport to Fairchild Air Force Base, plus millions of dollars more to buy development easements, preventing encroachment around airfields. A Canadian aerospace company is reportedly interested in using the Spokane airport space.

“ $400,000 to Eastern Washington University to design remodeling of Patterson and Martin Williamson halls.

“ Permission for EWU to sell its Spokane center building and use the money to buy or construct a building on or near the Riverpoint higher education campus in Spokane.

“ $300,000 for food bank refrigeration at Second Harvest.

“ $100,000 for Eastern Washington University’s Northeast Autism Center.

“ $100,000 for Spokane’s International Trade Alliance.

“ $100,000 for “continuum of care” money to help Spokane-area children learn.

“ $60,000 for a study of putting a rail loading crane on the Geiger Spur rail line near Fairchild Air Force Base.

“ Requiring the state Office of Financial Management to buy a stretch of the Palouse River and Coulee City Railroad between Cheney and Coulee City.