House’s Budget Lower Yet Contentious Session Precedes 53-45 Ok Of Gop-Authored Plan
The Republican-dominated House approved a proposed $19 billion state budget Monday night, the last step before negotiators try to strike a compromise with the more generous Senate and governor.
After hours of amendments and dozens of heated floor speeches, the House voted largely along party lines, 53-45, for a plan that was written by the conservative majority.
Democrats, who railed against the Republicans’ priorities, said it fails to live up to the GOP hype as “an education budget.” They also complained that Republicans have short-changed the health-care insurance program for the working poor, programs for the environment, social services, and salaries for state employees.
Democratic Gov. Gary Locke watched part of the proceedings from the speaker’s rostrum, but left before his party was squashed in its efforts to add about $170 million to the GOP proposal. In most cases, the amendments would have restored funds requested by Locke in his proposed budget.
The House plan, at $18.99 billion, is roughly $100 million below the level approved last week by the Senate, which is also controlled by the Republicans. The House is nearly $250 million below Locke’s budget.
Senate budget Chairman Jim West, R-Spokane, and House Appropriations Chairman Tom Huff, R-Gig Harbor, said the next step will be informal talks by a handful of budget leaders from the two houses and the governor or his designee.
A formal negotiating committee - three senators and three House members - could be named sometime next week, said House Speaker Clyde Ballard, R-East Wenatchee. Those sessions are conducted in the open, with the public, press and lobbyists invited to watch, and gavel-to-gavel TVW television coverage provided. The informal sessions the leaders envision in the next week or two will not be public.
Huff told colleagues the House version is “a work in progress. This is a budget we can improve upon” in the negotiations.
But he noted that even under the House plan, the lowest proposal on the table, the state would be spending $1.4 billion more than the current two-year budget. In an interview, he said some of the more conservative members of his caucus are pressing for the smallest possible increase as the budget talks begin.
“Some people didn’t want to spend more than 17.6 (the current level of $17.6 billion),” he said.
But Huff scoffed at what he called Democrats’ criticism that Republicans are “slashing and burning” core programs.
Rep. Dave Mastin, R-Walla Walla, a former Democrat, said his old colleagues would never be satisfied.
“If we had a $22 billion budget, we would have seen amendments to make it $24 billion; if we had offered a $50 billion budget, they would want to make it $55 billion.”
Republicans said their plan makes good on their promise to make education their top priority. Major gains are made in the kindergarten-through-12th-grade system and in higher education, they said.
The budget also permits $378 million in property, business and other assorted tax cuts, and leaves a reserve fund of $558 million.