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 federal stimulus dollars and with little real growth in state revenue. She might have added that she and lawmakers will face billions in pent-up demands – teachers, state workers and colleges profs’ COLAs are frozen for two years, equipment purchases delayed, and so forth. And a citizen initiative on the fall ballot may cap revenue growth in the state General Fund.

The gov’s accountability project says Washington has gotten about $4 billion in federal stimulus money, with $827 million spent so far. 

 If money for education, health care and other programs goes away or shrinks, that could leave the states even worse off than they are now, Gregoire says.