Despite appearances the Washington legislature is working on the budget
Feb 21, 2013, 6:05 AM | Updated: 7:01 am
The state is under a supreme court order to fund education, and that hasn't really come up yet either. (AP Photo/File)
(AP Photo/File)
We’re more than a month into the legislative session, and there has yet to be any action on the budget, which is about a billion dollars in the red. The state is under a supreme court order to fund education, and that hasn’t really come up yet either.
So what are lawmakers doing in Olympia?
It can easily look from the outside like the legislature isn’t tackling the most important items on its plate: Education funding, health care. Those issues haven’t really been discussed, yet they are clearly two of the top priorities in the state. We got our first look at a potential transportation budget Wednesday, on day 38 of the session.
Instead, lawmakers have been arguing over much smaller items like geoduck fishing licenses, cigar bars and allowing car registrations on smart phones, but Senate budget writer, Senator Andy Hill, said lawmakers are working on the budget every night. It’s done in small groups and behind the scenes, and it really doesn’t become public until the final month of the session.
The reason: It’s really hard to put a $34 billion budget together that everyone will like. “We spent the last month just basically going through the budget and getting our arms around it and figuring out what the issues are,” said Hill.
The second month will be spent building the budget and trying to figure out where to cut and where to put the money. “The third month is getting the votes for it, passing it off the floor and then working with the House and the governor’s office to come to an agreement on a final budget,” he said.
So that’s why you never hear about the budget until the end. Lawmakers are talking about education funding, health care and transportation every day. They’re not just blowing it off until the end. “It’s a big, arduous process, and it’s not real sexy right now because we’re basically just sitting in a room with a bipartisan group hammering out what we think it should look like,” Senator Hill said.
So when you hear about lawmakers talking about whether they like federal immigration policies that they have no control over or no say in today, there is a hearing about that, just realize they are working on the important issues. Quietly.
