Washington’s legislature goes back to work on January 12. It’s a short session, only 60 days. Much of the focus will be on re-balancing the state budget, which has been affected by falling revenues and a slowing economy. Some are looking at raising taxes to make the bottom lines match again. Governor Bob Ferguson says he’s not interested in that.
Today on Inland Journal, we hear from four of the state’s leading legislators at a forum sponsored by Greater Spokane to hear how they think they and their colleagues will approach the problem.
This year’s forum was unusual in that it didn’t include any legislators from Spokane. Three of the four were from western Washington. They were Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen (Seattle), Republican Senator Judy Warnick (Moses Lake), House Speaker Laurie Jinkins (Tacoma) and House Republican Leader Drew Stokesbary (Auburn).
The moderator is Jim Hedrick, Greater Spokane’s lobbyist in Olympia.
Jamie Pedersen: When we left Olympia after a really bruising, difficult session in which we tried to take a balanced approach with about $9 billion of tax increases over the next four years and about $7 billion of spending reductions over the next four years, we had a balanced budget and we had reserves. We thought we had a fighting chance of making it through this biennium and through the next four years. We have since then experienced what I would say is an unrelenting series of attacks from a pretty malevolent federal administration on our economy and on the stability of our budget.
Judy Warnick: Our people are running out of money in their own accounts. And I've heard of people charging for bare necessities, paying off the minimum of their credit cards, and really working hard to stay, keep their families in, well, food, clothing, gas. And we should be just working just as hard as the state. And in my thoughts, I think we have been, for years, spending more than the revenue.
Laurie Jinkins: There's not the opportunity to do big revenue this year. There may be some small revenue bills that we talk with the governor about, and probably related to very particular things. So a 60-day session is going to be like a sprinting marathon, is what it is. I'm trying to normalize in my caucus that we are not going to have the funds to invest in things.
Drew Stokesbary: Last session, I appreciated that for once the legislature finally took a close look at the budget and found areas where we could reduce spending. It shouldn't have taken last year's budget crisis to finally do that, this should be an area we do every single year. I would imagine that almost all of you who own a business, hopefully those of you who represent or lead our institutions of higher education are doing things like this every year.
