Total budget (two years): $31.4 billion.-Ending fund balance: $830 million.K-12 schools: total spending: $13.4 billion-net cut after federal stimulus dollars are included: $794 million-I-732 suspended for two years-I-728 reduced by $600 million-K-4 class-size reduction fully funded-Average per school district cut : $2.6 percent-one learning improvement…
Lawmakers, as has been written, reached agreement on the budget last night. $4 billion in cuts, we're told. People will die. Big tuition hikes. Cuts to the Basic Health Plan, to mental health, to hospitals, to the social safety net. "Everything got whacked," one lawmaker…
Rep. Eric Pettigrew, D-Seattle, confirms that his plan for a third-of-a-cent sales tax hike to offset deep budget cuts has collapsed. Proponents, including House Speaker Frank Chopp, have been unable to round up enough votes. "We looked at the vote count, and it didn't look…
This is an idea that legislative advocates should have had weeks ago: The folks at the private Washington State Budget and Policy Center have put together a handy online calculator to estimate how much a person would receive if the state working families tax rebate…
Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, who had earlier proposed a state income tax on high-earners, now says that changing the state's tax system is still the right thing to do, but that this is not the year to do it."Many members of the Senate…
"Sens. Lisa Brown, Joe McDermott, Adam Kline, Jeanne Kohl-Welles and other member of the Senate Democratic Caucus with hold a press conference today at 12:15 p.m. in the majority caucus room about the need for a continued dialogue with the public about our unfair tax…
Rep. Mike Armstrong, R-Wenatchee, suffered what's being described as a "mild heart attack" last night at the state capitol. He's been hospitalized, and doctors have scheduled an angioplasty this afternoon to clear a blockage in some of his heart blood vessels.Armstrong, on his way to…
Short takes and breaking news from the Washington Legislature and the state capital.
