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Orcutt, Curtis oppose
operations budget,
support highway plan
Woodland business owner concerned about spending hike
The $33.4 billion state
operating budget adopted Monday by the House of Representatives would spend far more
money than the state expects to take in, burning through an enormous
revenue surplus, and would fail to include a "rainy day" fund to protect
taxpayers. Those facts alone were enough to draw "no" votes from 18th
Legislative District Representatives
Ed Orcutt and
Richard
Curtis, who earlier in the day voted for a new transportation
budget.
"Last week's state revenue
forecast put the anticipated surplus revenue at 2.2 billion dollars. The
majority party's operating budget would wipe that out and put the state
treasury into a billion-dollar-plus deficit in a few years. There's no
way I can support such an irresponsible plan," said Orcutt, R-Kalama.
"This is more proof
positive that the safest place for a surplus is in the hands of the
taxpayers."
"A family that spends more
than it brings in is going to find itself in trouble, as will an
employer whose revenue doesn't keep up with expenses. But that concept
seems lost on the majority party," said Curtis, R-La Center. "This
budget would spend 1.3 billion dollars more than the state expects to
take in. A spending level like this may make some people happy now, but
wait two or three years, when the talk of program cuts and tax increases
begins."
The 18 percent increase in spending represented by
House Bill 1128 would bring the total state spending increase under
Gov. Christine Gregoire to 33 percent, or $8.2 billion. The House budget
includes more than $2 billion in new program spending, but fails to make
significant spending reductions in state programs or return any of the
surplus revenue to taxpayers.
An 18th District employer
is also concerned about the House operating budget.
“Government has extra
money because of some good years for real estate and construction, but
that doesn’t mean it should be setting up new programs. We’re not
guaranteed to have more good years," said Darlene Johnson, president
of Woodland Truck Lines in Woodland. "It doesn’t make sense to talk
about an 18 percent increase in government spending just when the
economy is predicted to be slowing down.
"This is the time to put
away money for a rainy day. A billion dollars would be a good amount.
And that money needs to be protected so they can’t just go in and take
it whenever they feel like it," said Johnson, who also is a certified
public accountant.
The lack of a
constitutionally protected "rainy day" fund in the operating budget also
disappoints the 18th District legislators.
"Two billion in new
spending, but nothing put aside in a protected fund? Even the governor
and the Democrat-controlled Senate favor a rainy day fund with
constitutional protection," said Curtis.
"The rainy day fund as we
propose it is protection for taxpayers, to be used only if the economy
slumps or an emergency situation arises. Even then there would be strong
controls on tapping into it," said Orcutt. "The ending balance in this budget
is in no way the same as a rainy day fund."
The operating budget was
adopted on a 62-35 vote.
The 2007-09 House
transportation budget, which is intended to keep road projects on
schedule, passed with an 81-16 vote.
"It's really a
preservation budget," said Curtis, "in that it would keep the promises
made to the taxpayers when the state portion of the gas tax was
increased in 2005. A jump in material costs and other issues had
stretched transportation revenue to the point that some projects were
facing big delays. This budget should allow projects already on the
list, like the widening of State Route 502 and improvements to State Route 14, to continue moving forward."
"I supported the
transportation budget, but I would have preferred seeing some of our
amendments pass first. Generally speaking, the transportation budget
still is weighted toward Central Puget Sound, but we were able to get
some additional funds for Southwest Washington. We'd like to see more reprioritizing
to
get more funding moved outside the greater Seattle area, to address
our safety and congestion issues, but our projects will stay on
schedule. That's important," said Orcutt.
House Bill 1094, the transportation budget, would allocate $7.4
billion over the next two years without any tax increases.
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Contact: Rep. Orcutt, (360) 786-7812
Rep. Curtis, (360) 786-7850
Darlene Johnson, Woodland Truck Lines, (360) 225-9433
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