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Category: Washington budget

Budget breakthrough means no shutdown

Budget breakthrough means no shutdown

Gov. Jay Inslee and legislative leaders from both parties and both houses on Thursday announced the good news that had eluded them for weeks — a budget deal that will avert a partial government shutdown. The state is closer to the budget deadline than ever before — and the phrase “government shutdown” had moved into the state lexicon as anxious state employees, their managers and the public wondered if it could happen here. With just three days before the June…

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Budget leaders: 320 million reasons to avert shutdown

Budget leaders: 320 million reasons to avert shutdown

Relieved budget writers say Washington should be able to avoid a government shutdown, after getting the year’s best revenue news, new, more robust revenue projections and a $90 million reduction in expected caseload costs. State budget Director David Schumacher and budget writers from both houses and both parties said the $320 million one-day windfall should break the Olympia logjam that had threatened to trigger a partial government shutdown if no budget were produced by June 30.  Senate budget Chairman Andy…

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WA lawmakers head into third session

WA lawmakers head into third session

Washington legislators are headed into an unusual second special session, still hoping to bridge stark partisan differences and avoid a June 30 deadline for averting a partial government shutdown. Dejected and weary lawmakers were closing out their 30-day special session Tuesday with little to show for their labors.  Gov. Jay Inslee, a freshman Democrat who once served in the state House himself, called a special session to convene at 9 a.m. on Wednesday. At a Capitol news conference, Inslee sought…

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House offers budget bookend: $1.3b in new revenue

House offers budget bookend: $1.3b in new revenue

The budget battle is about to get  hotter. Majority House Democrats on Wednesday unveiled a $34.5 billion budget plan for the next two years, relying on $1.3 billion in new revenue as a down-payment on the state Supreme Court’s order to boost aid to public schools. The blueprint, which they called honest, balanced and responsible, follows the contours laid down by new Gov. Jay Inslee, a fellow Democrat, and sets up the expected collision with the Senate’s no-new-taxes, $33.4 billion…

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WA Senate coalition unveils $33.3b no-tax budget

WA Senate coalition unveils $33.3b no-tax budget

The Washington Senate’s GOP-led majority coalition, backed by a handful of Democrats, rolled out a $33.3 billion, two-year state budget proposal Wednesday that holds the line on taxes, plows $1 billion in new money into education, cuts college tuition, and expands Medicaid coverage. The plan would also restore the 3 percent pay cut imposed on state workers in the last biennium. The proposal is the first legislative draft of the session, following on the heels of new Gov. Jay Inslee’s…

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