Senate Gop Offers Budget Well Under Cap, Locke House Plan Expected To Be Lower Yet; Sen. Prince To Propose 7-Cent Gas Tax Hike

Senate Republicans on Monday proposed a two-year operating budget for state government that is well below the state’s spending cap.

The Senate’s $19.09 billion operating budget proposal also is nearly $150 million less than Democratic Gov. Gary Locke’s spending plan, but higher than the level fellow Republicans in the House will unveil Wednesday.

Today, a two-step, 7-cent increase in the gasoline tax will be proposed by Senate Transportation Chairman Eugene Prince, R-Thornton, as he releases a separate proposal for a transportation budget. Prince also proposes letting both cities and counties boost the gas tax by a penny. The current tax is 23 cents.

House Appropriations Chairman Tom Huff, R-Gig Harbor, found much to like in the Senate budget plan, but said his caucus is more conservative. The Senate version will be the high-water mark, he predicted.

Reaction to the Senate plan was generally muted. The governor commended the Republicans for sharing his goal of an education-centered budget and raised only a few objections. Interest groups, too, were restrained in their complaints.

Ways and Means Chairman Jim West, R-Spokane, making his debut as the Senate’s budget writer, touted what he called a “sustainable and responsible” spending plan. He called it “a framework for the future” and said it reflects the new ethic of restraining growth of government and rethinking old ways of doing business.

Examples of the latter, he said, include welfare reform, creating a special council to do a better job of predicting welfare caseloads and enrollment increases, and adopting Locke’s savings incentive plan.

West plans to push the measure, SB6062, through his committee today and through the full Senate on Wednesday. The House plans to vote on its version next week. Negotiators then will be assigned to iron out differences.

The Senate plan, roughly 8 percent higher than current spending, would plow millions of new dollars into pay raises for teachers and state employees and for education enhancements. It also would cover inflation, growing prison populations, and higher social-service caseloads and school enrollments.

The plan would leave room for nearly $500 million in tax cuts, although the governor says it’s unwise to cut state revenues that much.

The Senate assumes voter approval of a $195 million property-tax relief measure, and reflects a one-year, 4.7-percent reduction in the state-collected property tax at a cost of $27 million, a business tax reduction of about $200 million, and assorted smaller tax cuts.

The House, however, already has agreed to Locke’s demand that the business tax breaks not take effect until summer 1998, saving the treasury about $100 million.

The West budget is $102 million below the $19.19 billion permitted under Initiative 601 for the next two years. The spending-cap law, passed by voters in 1993, says state spending may not rise faster than inflation plus the rate of population growth.

The current budget is $17.6 billion. The Legislature plans to pass an add-on budget of $100 million, bringing the total to $17.7 billion. The governor has proposed a $170 million supplemental budget and a $19.25 billion budget for the next two years.

If Locke’s higher supplemental budget is approved, it would slightly raise the allowable spending in the next biennium under I-601, permitting his $19.25 billion budget.

The Senate plan spends most of its new dollars for education and to cover the cost of inflation and growth in caseloads and enrollment. About $900 million is earmarked for higher caseloads and costs for social and health services, schools, higher education, debt service and other programs.

About $600 million would go for salary increases and enhancements in the kindergarten-through-12th grade school system and the state’s public colleges.