Details of the higher education section of the budget compromise have not been released. Some legislators indicate that the WSU section of the budget will contain elements of the House, Senate, and gubernatorial budget proposals. There are unconfirmed reports that the fall enrollments will be set at House levels. There are also unconfirmed reports that the Pullman power plant boiler and the Spokane Health Sciences initiative have been funded. I will pass confirmed information on as soon as it is available. Here is the Associated Press report indicating that the budget deal has been finalized late Tuesday night.
- Larry
Breakthrough: Negotiators produce budget compromise
By DAVID AMMONS
The Associated Press
4/26/00 2:23 AM
OLYMPIA (AP) -- Budget negotiators have broken a 91-day impasse, agreeing
on a package they expect to approve and send to Gov. Gary Locke on Thursday.
The plan does not include property-tax cuts, despite efforts by both
houses to pass a relief plan to head off more sweeping tax-cut initiatives
this fall.
Rather, the deal includes plans for filling gaping holes left by voter approval of tax-revolt Initiative 695 last fall and inaugurates a new state aid program for local school districts.
Negotiators also announced agreement on a new transportation budget
That includes hundreds of millions for highway projects, keeps roadside
Rest areas open and bails out transit and ferries.
Budget leaders emerged Tuesday night after a day of marathon
negotiations
to announce the breakthrough. After a few final details are ironed
out,
the plan will be presented to the House and Senate Republican and
Democratic caucuses.
If all goes according to plan, they expect final passage on Thursday.
Senate budget Chairwoman Valoria Loveland, D-Pasco, and the co-chairs
of
the House budget panel, Tom Huff, R-Gig Harbor, and Helen Sommers,
D-Seattle, were jubilant, if exhausted after days of sometimes tense
negotiations. Each pronounced the final deal a success.
"We`re ready to vote!" cried Loveland. "We`re down to finishing here."
Huff said the cut-and-paste deal has something for everyone -- and
will
leave all sides a little unhappy.
"It`s a tough process. Each caucus has its needs and desires and wants
and
it`s not always possible to please everybody," Huff told reporters.
"We
kept our cool."
He said Republicans have agreed to drop their demand for a ban on
extending insurance benefits to state employees` gay and lesbian
partners
and to unmarried heterosexual partners. The Public Employee Benefits
Board
is studying a plan to provide such benefits, at the request of the
Washington Federation of State Employees, AFL-CIO.
"We would have preferred a proviso, but reality does set in and
ultimately
we have to get a budget out of here," Huff said. "These aren`t drop-
dead
issues. You move on."
He said the budget won`t include extra money for employee benefits and
that if the board of Locke appointees were to decide unilaterally to
cover
domestic partners, the money would have to come from employees, not
the
taxpayers.
The new budget includes $57 million for education improvements and
$145
million for school construction. Over five years, the program would
total
$1.5 billion in new aid. This project has been a major priority for
the
governor.
The hang-up was over the Senate`s refusal to earmark lottery proceeds
for
the school enhancements. The compromise is to dip into the general
treasury at a level similar to the lottery income, but not tied to
gambling per se.
The proposal includes about $135 million in aid to local governments
to
replenish some of the I-695 cuts. It also includes $20 million in cash
for
the ferry system, $80 million for transit and $15 million for Sound
Transit.
The plan does not, however, include property-tax cuts. The Senate had
wanted to give a $200 tax credit to all homeowners, but not to
businesses.
The governor and the House wanted a smaller tax cut for all property
owners, coupled with a bigger tax break for senior citizens. In the
end,
Huff and Loveland said, the standoff meant nothing will pass this
year.
Locke, who convened a new special session on Monday before lawmakers
had
reached a deal, applauded the progress. But he added, "We must wrap
this
up quickly. Too much hangs in the balance."
Highway projects await a green light and the state mustn`t miss part
of
the construction season, the governor said. Transit systems and state
and
local programs need to know how much money they will have, the
administration said.
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