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Legislature passes
operating, capital, transportation budgets; adjourns
Following passage of a
state operating budget, a transportation budget and a capital
construction budget, lawmakers adjourned the 105-day legislative session
Sunday evening in Olympia.
The first appropriation
bill to move forward and be sent to the governor was a $3.09 billion
capital budget which provides funding for various projects across the
state, including construction of schools and other public buildings,
parks and trails, and land acquisition. The measure includes more than
$25 million for projects in the 10th District.
Through some intense, last-minute negotiations,
Rep. Barbara Bailey
said
she was able to secure $50,000 for a multi-purpose community and sports
facility in Oak Harbor.
"The Oak Harbor Rotary is raising funds to help pay for a new stadium in
our community. This is a very worthwhile project for the young people in
Oak Harbor," said Bailey.
Other local projects in
the capital budget include $308,030 for water storage improvements at
Freeland; $834,700 for a water transmission main replacement along State
Route 20 near Oak Harbor, $2.4 million for the Cedarhome Reservoir in
Stanwood, and more than $5 million each for various improvements at Cama
Beach and Deception Pass.
"I’m especially pleased that we could secure funding to improve and
preserve the lighthouse tower at Fort Casey State Park. This is a
wonderful landmark which attracts many tourists and a good investment
for our district," said Bailey, R-Oak Harbor.
After it failed Saturday
on the House floor, lawmakers Sunday reconsidered an $8 billion
transportation tax package that would raise gasoline taxes 9.5 cents
over four years and pour billions into Seattle-area projects such as the
Alaskan Way Viaduct. Although the measure would provide $131 million
dollars for some needed transportation projects in the 10th District,
Bailey said she voted against the measure because the tax increase was
too high and committed the state too far into the future.
Bailey also expressed
concerns about the $26 billion operating budget adopted Sunday by the
Legislature which relies on nearly a half-billion dollars in tax
increases.
"It’s not a sustainable
budget. We have unnecessarily raised taxes to increase spending by 12
percent. A tax here, a tax there, everywhere a tax-tax, in order to
balance the budget. We already have an additional $1.7 billion in
incoming revenues to the state without tax increases. We didn’t need to
raise taxes," said Bailey, a member of the House Appropriations
Committee.
"We’ve transferred funds
from dedicated accounts and use one-time fixes in order to balance this
budget. So when I look to the future, I am very concerned, particularly
that we’ve raided the Health Services Account, and will be putting that
account into a $152 million deficit in the following biennium," added
Bailey. "This money funds children’s health care and it provides for our
vulnerable seniors – people who really need care in this state. We have
made decisions that have, in my opinion, been the wrong decisions in the
budget."
Minority Republicans,
including Bailey, fought against tax increases on cigarettes and
alcohol, a new sales tax on extended warranties for consumer goods, and
against resurrecting the so-called "death tax" – a tax on estates
collected once the owner dies. The measures passed, mostly along party
lines.
"We simply cannot sustain
this budget. It went beyond the I-601 spending limits placed into law by
voters in 1993. So the majority party eliminated that law. We could have
balanced the budget using the increases in revenue expected in the
coming two years. But that apparently wasn’t good enough. This budget
spends more," said Bailey. "Where will we go next biennium? We’ve taken
everything we can take. The taxpayers have no more to give. We should
have been more frugal. We should pay attention to what we are doing with
this budget. It is simply not sustainable."
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For more information, contact:
John
Handy, Assistant Director: (360) 786-5758
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