OHH!

Everyone in Olympia knew that once the election was over, Gov. Chris Gregoire would need to start talking honestly about the state budget. What's surprising is that it is the P-I who is noting the obvious: Gregoire's Cuts Mirror Rossi's

OLYMPIA -- During her re-election campaign, Gov. Chris Gregoire blasted Republican challenger Dino Rossi for decisions he made as the Senate's lead budget writer in 2003 -- such as suspending teacher pay raises mandated by voter initiative and cutting funding for children's health care.
Gregoire said such moves were out of step with Washington's values.
But after winning re-election Gregoire proposed balancing the next state budget with the same types of cuts -- suspended pay raises and reduced eligibility for children's health coverage.

Rossi discussed the need to rein in the budget from the day he announced he was running -- along with Senator Joe Zarelli who has been a consistent voice of reason in legislative budget debates.
In the article, Rossi predicts that the Democrats are planning a tax increase vote in November.

Rossi said the budget sets up an end game in which the Legislature can ask voters to approve new taxes.
"In the end, if they really get weak-kneed, which they probably will, they are going to shift out things that people want instead of facing up to some of the constituencies that helped get them elected and call for a tax increase to pay for it," he said.
By creating a new tax proposal with a referendum, Democrats can shield themselves from political fallout because the burden moves to the voters, he said.

Senator Rosa Franklin introduced an income tax today, as reported by the KIRO website:

The idea of a state income tax is back on the table again.
Senator Rosa Franklin (D) says it's time to revamp the entire tax system and talk about a more sustainable way of funding the state budget.
Franklin would like to put a bill before the voters in the next general election. "Whenever you mention taxes, nobody likes to pay taxes. My goal in putting it forward is to have a discussion," Franklin told KIRO Radio's Dori Monson.

The odds are against it becoming law this year, but it does point to the problem at the center of this year's session: either serious cuts or tax increases are needed ... and the Legislature is prohibited from raising taxes without either a two-thirds vote or a vote of the people.
Yet, there's little serious action to resolve the problem pending word from the President one wag referred to as "Obama Claus" about federal aid to Washington state. Will it be a billion? Two billion? Road funds? Medicare funds?
Budget writers are also waiting anxiously for Washington's own updated budget forecast later in the session.
In the meantime, Democrats pine for an income tax, promising it would bring stability and fairness -- traits they have failed to notice are absent from the federal tax system.

According to the Evergreen Freedom Foundation's list of Big Spenders, Senator Claudia Kauffman is now one of the most expensive legislators in Olympia, with over $2 billion in new taxes and fees proposed this year.
She now joins the company of the fiscally reckless Maralyn Chase, Adam Kline, and Jeanne Kohl-Wells.
The list is compiled by EFF from the fiscal notes produced by the state Office of Financial Management as a result of Initiative 960 which requires the state to keep track of the ten-year cost of all proposed legislation.

The state budget deficit is now more than eight billion dollars, according to Arun Raha, the state's chief revenue forecaster, in a preview of the official March forecast.
Here's what the Seattle Times article said:

Washington state forecasters had previously projected a nearly $6 billion shortfall. Thursday's preliminary forecast shows an additional $721 million gap in the current two-year budget and $1.6 billion more in the next biennium that starts in July. That pushed the overall shortfall to $8 billion.

Still, we shouldn't forget, it is an increase in spending. It's more revenue than the last two-year budget, but much less than the Democrats had hoped to spend.
Eric Earling, at Sound Politics remembers that something about that $8 billion rings a bell ... it's the amount spending increased during Gregoire's first term.
It would be nice if someone had a list of the moron legislators who voted for those spending increases. Here's just such a list: the Senate, and House votes when the last two-year budget was approved.