Senate rolls out budget proposal

Plan rejects House's extra pay raise for teachers and creates $755 million rainy-day fund

By Brad Shannon | The Olympian • Published February 27, 2008

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Senate Democrats outlined their budget plan Tuesday, a counterproposal to what the House approved Monday that rejects an extra pay raise for teachers and sets aside $755 million for the future.

The House proposed savings of $750 million, including about $450 million in a voter-approved rainy-day fund.

The move not to offer extra teacher pay sets up one of many looming fights about how much to spend and where to spend it — especially because the two chambers spend more in different areas, both want similar reserves, and it is traditional to resolve House-Senate differences by spending more, not less.

The state teachers union criticized the refusal to add 1 percent on top of the 3.9 percent raise that teachers and community college staff members will get in the 2008-09 school year. The Washington Education Association said it is airing radio ads urging the higher pay to make up for pay freezes during 2003-05.

"I am a Depression-era kid, and I believe in living within our means," Senate Ways and Means Chairwoman Margarita Prentice, D-Renton, said in outlining the reasons for not spending more.

Prentice said the Senate's $310 million in spending is frugal and that its reserves are prudent. She described some new spending as unavoidable because it's tied to December storm damage and rising caseloads.

Republicans said Democrats are intent on spending beyond the state's means. Republican Sen. Joseph Zarelli of Ridgefield said Democrats' spending plan for 2007-09 now has $1.7 billion more in outlays than in revenue.

"You have to draw your box first, decide how much money you have to spend," he said. "What they've been doing is just spending, and then trying to find a way to make it fit the box."

The House approved its supplemental spending plan on a virtually party-line vote Monday, and the full Senate could vote on its proposal as soon as Thursday.

The Senate ignored requests by the state's teachers for a 1 percent raise. The House included the raise — at the expense of some funding for all-day kindergarten programs and other spending — in its $305 million supplemental budget.