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Armstrong, Condotta oppose Democrat spending plan
Operating budget blows through $2 billion surplus,
fails to address pension costs
A $33.5 billion state operating
budget which passed the House of Representatives along near party lines,
62-35, would take the state from a $2 billion surplus to a deficit
within two to four years,
Rep. Mike
Armstrong and
Rep. Cary
Condotta warned today. The vote this morning on the budget
measure,
House Bill 1128,
was 62-35 with both Armstrong and Condotta voting no.
Armstrong said House
Democrats are using the budget as a spending spree to vastly expand
state government at the expense of taxpayers.
"This is a 33 percent
increase in spending over a four-year period. That is huge. It's 8.4
billion dollars in additional spending when this budget is implemented.
It has 2.2 billion dollars in policy adds. We came here with nearly a 2
billion dollar surplus and this is spending even more. What does that
tell you?" asked Armstrong, R-Wenatchee. "We know the economy is
flattening out and we will see less of an increase in our revenues in
the coming years. Yet this budget blows right past the 1-601 spending
limit, replaces the surplus with a deficit, and continues to spend like
crazy."
"I will attempt to be
bipartisan - in 1985, $15 billion; in 1995, $32 billion; and, 2007, $57
billion in cumulative spending. The state operating budget portion for
2007 is more than thirty-three billion dollars. I reported, you decide," said Condotta, R-East Wenatchee.
"We are approaching a
budget that spends ten thousand dollars for every man, woman and child
in the state. Therefore, we are spending around forty thousand dollars
for every family of four, not including local government, transportation
or direct federal spending. Wow!" Condotta said.
The 12th District
lawmakers said the budget would add more employees than the entire
population of Chelan.
"The city of Chelan has
3,600 residents. This budget would add 3,800 new state employees.
This adds an entire new city to our state employees' ranks," said
Armstrong.
Armstrong also noted that
the budget does little to address the growing unfunded liability in the
state's pension system.
"We know our pensions are
in deficit. We should be paying down the 5.1 billion dollar deficit in
the Plan 1 pensions and keeping the promises made to state employees and
retirees. We're hiring 3,800 new employees and we can't even take care
of the employees that we now have. We're not even paying the interest on
the pension deficit," said Armstrong.
Armstrong added that House
Democrats are creating a double class of employees by rewarding union
members with pay raises on July 1 while non-union state employees must
wait until September 1 for cost-of-living increases.
"Why do we think it's okay
to give union employees their raise ahead of nonunion employees? What is
that about? I think that's fairly obvious," said Armstrong. "And health
care overpayments will only go back to the union members while nonunion
members will forfeit the 750 dollars in overpayments. This budget is
creating a dual class of state employees, and it actually cost the
Department of Personnel more to reprogram the system than to pay those
nonunion members on July 1."
Gain sharing would also be
eliminated under the budget plan. Gain sharing increases retiree
benefits when the pension fund has repeated gains. Armstrong said it was
a promise made to retirees and to state employees who switched to Plan
Three of the Public Employees Retirement System.
"We promised them gain
sharing if the retirement accounts grew over 10 percent. They would get
a share of that. And now this budget is breaking that promise by
eliminating gain sharing and replacing it with a formula that many may
not even take advantage of," said Armstrong.
"It's atrocious that this
budget is not being responsible with the taxpayer dollars. It's
irresponsible to not rebate some money to taxpayers when we have a 2
billion dollar surplus and people are being taxed out of their homes,"
added Armstrong. "We should be giving people some breaks here. Instead,
this budget is adding on to the 1.3 billion dollar deficit that we know
will happen in the next two to four years. How is that being fiscally
responsible?"
"Which tax will we
increase to cover the next budget? Sales tax (double digit sales tax?
Property tax (you must be kidding)? Business taxes (they already pay
forty-seven percent of taxes, compared to twenty-nine percent in other
Western states)? This question should be answered before we pass this
budget," Condotta said.
The state Senate is
expected to bring its own budget proposals forward later this week, and
before the 2007 session ends, the House and Senate will have to work out
their differences and agree on compromise budgets.
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For more information, contact:
John
Sattgast, Public Information Officer: (360) 786-7257
Bobbi Cussins, Public Information Officer: (360) 786-7252
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