New State Budget: Cut Social Services; Tax DIY Tobacco Smokers; Delay Local Payments

State saves over $200  million by temporary hold on sending tax revenues back to localities where they’re collected

From the Olympian.com
By Rachel La Corte  of the Associated Press

Gov. Chris Gregoire said Thursday [April 12] the recently concluded legislative session was her most difficult, but she was happy with the bipartisan budget that lawmakers approved.

The negotiations were tough, but lawmakers “kept their eye on the ball and they all got something critical and important to them. They all gave,” Gregoire said.

“At the end of the day, it was a bipartisan legislative session with success all around,” she said.

Gregoire said that while no one got everything they wanted, the resulting budget “reflects what everybody wanted to come out of this legislative session.”

Lawmakers adjourned their double overtime session Wednesday, closing a roughly half-billion dollar shortfall and passing several bills making changes to how the state handles pensions, health care and future budgeting.

Gregoire said she wishes there had been more money available to lawmakers to do things such as providing better funding for basic public education.