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Tag: budget

Oregon update: Voters OK income tax hikes

Oregon update: Voters OK income tax hikes

While Washington lawmakers and Governor Gregoire contemplate the prospect of tax hikes to help close a $2.6 billion budget shortfall, Oregon voters have upheld the Oregon Legislature’s decision to boost corporate and personal income taxes to the tune of over $730 million. Oregon voters, balloting by mail, on Tuesday approved a pair of referenda, both by a margin of better than 53-47.  Measure 66 will raise the margin income tax rate on personal income above $125k for individuals and $250k…

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Furlough days: new plan for 16 days of ‘temporary layoffs’

Furlough days: new plan for 16 days of ‘temporary layoffs’

Senate budget Chairwoman Margarita Prentice has introduced a plan for closing state agencies one day a month for the next 16 months, as a way of cutting costs as the state deals with a multibillion-dollar budget crisis. Prentice, a Renton Democrat, outlined  in Senate Bill 6503  introduced on Friday, specific closure days starting with Friday, March 12, and lasting through June 10, 2011. Most of the closures would be Fridays, as California currently does, giving state workers a long weekend, and…

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Budget woes dominate new legislative session

Budget woes dominate new legislative session

Washington’s election-year session gets under way at high noon on Monday, with lawmakers and the governor facing 2.6 billion problems. That, of course, is the size of the new projected budget deficit, $2.6 billion.  Less than a year ago, lawmakers closed a $9 billion gap, but the anemic economy, coupled with soaring demand for state services during this recession, has produced yet another yawning chasm. Governor Gregoire says a no-new-taxes budget fix would require service cuts and layoffs totaling $1.7…

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Gregoire budget: All cuts, for now

Gregoire budget: All cuts, for now

Governor Gregoire has proposed, “with the greatest reluctance,” a  new Washington State budget that fills a projected $2.6 billion deficit by cutting $1.7 billion from state programs and using $900 million in “rainy day” savings and fund balances. But she says she hopes the Legislature won’t pass her own no-new-taxes budget that she was required by state law to submit. She called her proposal “balanced, but unjust” and said she’ll propose a second budget next month that restores many of…

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Sea of red ink: WA treasury plunges $760 million

Sea of red ink: WA treasury plunges $760 million

It’s true that the state and national economy are finally recovering, but consumers aren’t spending and unemployment keeps edging upward.  That odd situation, dubbed a “revenue-less recovery,” today led the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council to slash another $760 million from the expected tax revenue for the next two-year period. State budget Director Victor Moore says the grim development means the Legislature and Governor Gregoire now have a budget hole of $2.6 billion to fill, just months after fixing a…

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State government money woes sweep West Coast

State government money woes sweep West Coast

Governor Gregoire and the Washington Legislature are cringing at the thought of a projected $2 billion budget gap this winter, and that number is expected to rise a bunch more in Thursday’s revenue forecast update.  This after closing a $9 billion gap in April. Does misery love company? Then take note that our sister states of Oregon and California are facing dire straits. Today’s LA Times says the fresh deficit of $21 billion is looming for the not-so-Golden State, even…

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Budget Battle of 2010: Just how big is the gap?

Budget Battle of 2010: Just how big is the gap?

Governor Gregoire and the Legislature had to grapple with a $9 billion budget problem last year, and they’re not out of the woods yet.  Recovery of the state economy is still elusive, and a new revenue forecast next week could show still more slippage before it gets better. For now, the placeholder number for the problem that awaits Olympia: $1.7 billion.  That includes $1.2 billion from revenue falloff and from loss of a big tax lawsuit, and $533 million from…

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Taxes in your future? Well, maybe …

Taxes in your future? Well, maybe …

Gov. Chris Gregoire’s stance, in both her 2008 re-election campaign and in the 2009 legislative session, was death on taxes. Now? She’s willing to at least consider it next winter. The Democratic controlled Legislature, at her insistence, closed a $9 billion budget gap this year without general tax hikes or a tax referendum to the voters.  But as the state economy continues to sputter, lawmakers face another gap of $750 million to $1 billion, due to sagging tax receipts and…

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Gregoire: Future budget woes could be even worse

Gregoire: Future budget woes could be even worse

Governor Gregoire, looking south to budget woes in California and Oregon, takes some solace that she and the Legislature balanced a new two-year state budget without general new taxes and without major warfare in Oly or at the ballot-box.  But Stateline.org, the online news service of the Pew Center on the States, quotes Gregoire as saying “what keeps me up at night” is worrying about the NEXT budget train-wreck. As The Olympian’s Brad Shannon points out, Gregoire says she can’t breathe easy, just thinking about balancing a 2011-13 budget without…

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WA budget: Dems tout ‘cuts w/ a conscience’

WA budget: Dems tout ‘cuts w/ a conscience’

On Day 103 of the 105-day legislative session in Oly, we’re finally seeing hard copy on a new $31.4 billion, two-year state budget. It’s the majority Democrats’ House-Senate compromise that closes a $9 billion budget gap without higher general taxes. Deets here . The session must adjourn by Sunday night, and lawmakers are racing to make that happen. The operating, construction and transportation budgets all must move through both houses, and there’s little time for scrutiny or debate.  The main operating…

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