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Rep. Alexander: Snohomish
court decision seconds House Republican concerns about Democrat spending
Rep. Gary
Alexander,
Republican leader on the House Appropriations Committee, on the order
entered May 1 by Snohomish County Superior Court Judge James Allendoerfer in the Farm Bureau case concerning a $250 million money
shift made in the 2005 state operating budget, which raised the state
spending limit associated with Initiative 601:
“The Democrat desire for
spending, which led to what Judge Allendoerfer is calling an ‘illusory
budget approach,’ will come back to bite the incoming Legislature.
According to the governor’s budget office the gap for 2007-09 is already
$718 million, and the judge’s decision to invalidate Democrat tax
increases from 2005 stands to make the gap even larger. It’s time for
the truth-in-budgeting legislation and other protections Republicans
have offered, to bring some fiscal restraint back to Olympia.
“There’s a pattern here:
in 2005 the Democrats exploited a provision in the law with their
three-way shift of $250 million and raised the spending limit to a level
Judge Allendoerfer describes as ‘erroneously high.’ This year they
dropped the voodoo accounting in favor of brute force, in the form of
legislation that simply declared the spending limit increased by the
amount appropriated in the budget. By appropriating $825 million to
unprotected accounts instead of letting money fall into the rainy day
fund the Democrats create a new ‘floor’ for spending next biennium and
make the ‘ceiling’ that much higher.
“For two years Republicans
have been shut out of the budget-writing process, and it shows. If this
is what the Democrats call fiscal responsibility, Washington taxpayers
and our economy can’t afford a third year.”
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For more information, contact:
Brendon Wold, Public
Information Officer: (360) 786-7698
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