View from the Northwest

Northwest lawmakers found things they like and things they don’t like in President Bush’s fiscal 2008 budget proposal. Here are some highlights.

Good news

• The Hanford Nuclear Reservation is scheduled for $690 million for a facility to turn nuclear waste into a glass-like substance.

• National parks would receive increases to mark the 100-year anniversary of the park system, plus as much as $300 million per year extra for the next 10 years. Olympic National Park would receive an extra $1.6 million and Mount Rainier National Park an extra $1.25 million in the coming year.

• The Defense Department has an extra $350 million for the program to replace the Air Force’s KC-135 aerial refueling tankers, the type of plane stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base. The money is apparently for research and development of a plane that must be selected and put into production for delivery by 2011.

Bad news

• The Bonneville Power Administration would be required to use some money it receives for surplus electricity sales to pay down debt, which critics say could result in higher electric rates in the Northwest. Congress blocked a similar proposal last year.

• Some 300,000 acres of national forest and other federal lands would be sold to provide money for rural schools and roads. Congress also rejected a similar proposal last year.

• The budget proposes increased spending on veterans programs, but some of the money would come from increasing the co-payments for prescription drugs from $8 to $15, and requiring an annual enrollment fee for veterans who earn more than $50,000 a year.

From staff reports