Contact: Marsha Richards, Communications Director
(360) 956-3482

House spending proposal incomplete and unbalanced

House Democrats left town last week after passing a 2003-05 spending plan the night before the 105-day session ended. Since there was no time left to negotiate with the Senate over budget details, Governor Locke has arranged for a special session to begin May 12.

There’s only one glaring problem: the House didn’t pass a budget proposal, which means there is no legitimate legislation to negotiate. House budget-writers managed to pass an expensive spending plan, but they were not able to agree—even among themselves—on how those expenditures will be funded. Their proposal has a gaping $640 million hole due to the fact that they don’t have the votes for an expansion of Keno gambling ($38 million) or the suspension of Initiatives 728 and 732 ($603 million).

House budget leaders seem to hope senators will negotiate over the spending part of the plan and forget about the revenue part until later. This would be irresponsible, to say the least. So there is nothing to negotiate.

Having failed to pass the most important piece of legislation they would deal with this session in a timely manner, House Speaker Frank Chopp should call a private, unpaid session prior to May 12 to work out budget details so he and his colleagues can come to the table with a real plan. It would save taxpayers $16,000 to $18,000 a day.

Evergreen Freedom Foundation P.O. Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507 Phone: (360) 956-3482, Fax: (360) 352-1874 Email: effwa@effwa.org