Negotiators Reach Compromise On State Budget Deal Made Little Overall Change, But Money Found For Fish And Wildlife, Head Start Program

Negotiators struck a deal on a new state budget Tuesday night after adding money to bail out the Fish and Wildlife Department and to boost the state Head Start program and the governor’s new reading corps.

House and Senate negotiators, dominated by the majority Republicans, made little overall change in the two-year state budget that had cleared the two houses earlier this month. But they had to compromise on several dozen areas of difference.

The bottom line after all of the adjustment was the same as when they started: $19.085 billion.

That was in keeping with Republicans’ insistence that they wouldn’t boost overall spending, but would allocate more than $100 million in “found” money, including savings from lower-than-expected school enrollment.

The new appropriations go mostly for reading improvement, salmon restoration, transportation and crime-fighting.

The compromise deal is $68 million below the level authorized by the voters under the spending limits of Initiative 601.

It leaves $782 million in reserves.

The House and Senate expect to begin voting on the measure tonight. Thursday is the 60th and final day of the electionyear legislative session.

The budget presumes approval of $26 million in assorted small tax cuts. Bills began moving through the Senate late Tuesday night. The main GOP tax cut is a $30-per-vehicle drop in the excise tax paid on license tabs each year. If voters approve the plan in November, the savings in the next two years would be $257 million.

Republican budget leaders praised the new budget proposal.

“To the taxpayer, it holds the line,” said House Appropriations Chairman Tom Huff, R-Gig Harbor. “There are no new taxes; in fact, there are tax cuts. So it is a taxpayer’s budget, and it deals with our essential needs.”

Democratic negotiators were cheered to get $1 million more for Head Start, an extra $2 million for Gov. Gary Locke’s reading corps proposal and about $1 million for new staff for state mental hospitals. But Democrats tried without success to add money for clean water programs and to expand health care for children of middle-income families.

Sen. Harriet Spanel, D-Bellingham, complained that minority Democrats were excluded from closed-door negotiations. She praised some of the latest budget changes, but added, “We’ve still got a long ways to go in some areas, like class size.”

Dick Thompson, the governor’s budget director, gave the latest plan a mixed review.

“Some of it’s good and some of it’s bad,” he said in an interview. “We like some of what they’ve done, such as funding the salmon license buy-back program and mental hospital staffing. But there are obviously pieces we’d like to see added.”

He said he was given 90 minutes with Republicans on Saturday night to give his pitch for the governor’s priorities.

The compromise plan boosts spending for the reading program to $17 million, including $8 million for the governor’s reading-tutor project. Locke had sought $24 million for that project alone. The other GOP money would go for teaching districts how to improve their instruction of reading, using the phonics method and other techniques.

Negotiators eliminated a $5 million House plan to provide each teacher with funds to buy a collection of books for the classroom. They also decided to finance principal internships from funds provided last year for block grants.