April 3, 2009

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

In one sense, the wait is now over: the House and Senate have released their budgets dealing with our state's projected $9 billion budget hole.  In another sense, the waiting has just begun as the majority party will now deliberate among themselves over the coming weeks to rectify the differences in each legislative body's spending proposal.

I have looked closely at both budgets and have reservations about how they go about providing state services and closing our budget shortfall.  I believe the budget proposals rely too much on one-time money, attempt to lure you into supporting a tax increase in the future, and set us up for budget shortfalls again down the road.

Instead of streamlining government and delivering services more efficiently and effectively, the Senate and House propose to use nearly $5 billion in one-time federal and state money to backfill the overspending of the last four years.

Because we're not actually making significant, long-term changes to the process, we're going to be right back in the same situation in the following biennium.  This is just delaying the inevitable.

This is also the first time, in my memory, that budget writers have proposed using $780 million in capital budget dollars for the operating budget. The capital budget is the state's construction budget.  It is funded mostly from state-issued bonds.  By using capital budget money – money that is acquired through bonds and paid back over several years with interest – we're in essence placing daily expenses on the state's credit card which is a shortsighted budget practice.  This sets us up for deficit spending down the road. The budgets also nearly eliminate all of the I-728 class size reduction funding and severely reduce health services for the truly needy.  I believe these cuts are made in such a way of making the most noise possible in order to convince the public that a tax increase is needed to "buy back" services.

Rep. Crouse with Legislative Marta Nelson from Spokane Valley.

In my opinion, a tax increase is NOT needed, nor can we afford it.  We can balance the budget, fund education and protect our most vulnerable without raising taxes on hard-working families.

Borrowing against our future, relying upon one-time money, and hoping for a tax increase at the ballot is not the type of leadership our state needs right now.  I will continue to work with my colleagues to bring common-sense budget reductions to our state spending plan.

Thank you for your interest in these issues and thank you for allowing me to represent you in Olympia.

Cap and Trade
The Senate version of Gov. Gregoire's cap and trade proposal, Senate Bill 5735, was recently voted out of the House Ecology and Parks Committee.  The governor's testimony made it clear this is still a high priority for her administration.

As you may recall, the so-called cap and trade legislation is a proposal put forth by the Western Climate Initiative, which includes seven Western states and four Canadian Provinces. The idea is to cap the amount of carbon that may be emitted by activities such as energy and oil production, manufacturing jobs, and, by 2015, auto emissions, in order to reach 1990 emission levels by 2020.

I want you to know that I continue to have serious concerns about the costs this burdensome legislation will have on employers and energy producers, not to mention the higher costs passed on to hard-working families.  I don't think it's a stretch to call it a huge transfer of wealth as money goes from the private sector and consumers to bigger government and Wall Street.  I'll continue to update you on this legislation as it moves along through the legislative process.

Domestic Partnerships
Senate Bill 5688, dubbed the "everything but marriage" bill, recently passed the House Judiciary Committee and is likely to come up for a vote in the House soon.  This bill would essentially redefine traditional marriage and extend to homosexual domestic partners all the rights and benefits of married heterosexual couples.

I'm opposed to this bill.  This is one of the last steps towards legalizing gay marriage in this state.

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