Riffing off President Obama’s well-received (among Democrats) statement this week that reducing the deficit with a an equation that includes tax increases on the wealthy (“This isn’t class warfare, it’s math”), state senate majority leader Sen. Lisa Brown (D-3, Spokane) (an economist, by the way) and ways and means committee chair Sen. Ed Murray (D-43, Seattle) released this statement this morning about the news that Gov. Chris Gregoire is calling for a special session in November to deal with the $1.3 billion revenue shortfall.
Over three years, we have reduced public service levels across the board, from support for kindergarten education to supervision of offenders in our communities. As we approach special session, we must recognize that more cuts – however necessary mathematically – will impact Washingtonians, their families and their communities.
As legislators, we have many tools for balancing our budget – including giving the voters the option of approving new revenue to pay for the services they want. We strongly encourage our colleagues in both parties, in the House and Senate, to avoid drawing lines in the sand and instead to arrive in Olympia in November prepared to offer solutions and to be ready to discuss all the possibilities.
I have a call in to ranking Republican ways and means committee member state Sen. Joseph Zarelli (R-18, Ridgefield) to get his reaction to the challenge.
Zarelli has been calling for a special bipartisan committee to deal with the budget.
