Stuff you should know:

• It was almost anticlimatic, after all the hubub all winter long, but Governor Gregoire has signed a $31.4 billion two-year state budget for Washington.  Laboring under a recession-driven $9 billion budget gap, lawmakers adopted a mix of spending cuts (about $4.4 billion), one-time money (mostly Obama-bucks from the stimulus package, for things like education and health care), and a variety of fund-balance snatches and a bunch of fee and tuition increases (such as the 14 percent annual increase in tuition at public four-year colleges and 7 percent at the ceecees). The gov erased some of the deep cuts in the state auditor’s fund for voter-mandated performance audits of state and local agencies and programs.
• No general pay boosts for teachers, college professors and staff, or state employees during the next two years.  Also a state panel voted Tuesday  to freeze pay for the governor and other statewide electeds, legislators and judges.  Gov will continue to earn about $167k, less than a number of college brass and coaches we could mention. Lawmakers make about $42k, plus per diem expenses, pension benefits, health care and office support. 
• New legislation will mean more scrutiny of so-called middle managers in the Washington Management Service of state gummint. About 7.5 percent of the state payroll are considered managers.
• It wasn’t intended that way, but Attorney General Rob McKenna’s announcement of a new chief of staff was widely viewed in the press as the first concrete signal that he’s hankering for the Governor’s Mansion.  With two subsecutive losses by Dino Rossi, McKenna is widely seen as the GOP’s best shot at reclaiming the office they haven’t held since John Spellman’s 1980 victory.   McKenna pick for the powerful post of chief of staff is the savvy Randy Pepple, who is seen as a top-drawer manager (he ran Congressman Rick White’s office), public affairs expert, and political strategist and TV talking head.
• Triple your pleasure: Kurt Triplett, who became acting King County Executive recently when Ron Sims joined the Obama Administration,  will keep the post for most of the the rest of ’09. The King County Council chose him over former broadcaster and Seattle Mayor Charles Royer, and will serve until a successor is elected in November and the election is certified in December.  Six people are running for the August primary and two will advance to the November ballot.  Triplett? He is a veteran of KingCo service, including five years as Sims’ chief of staff. He isn’t one of the six wannabes.