House Budget Proposal: Comparison with Governor and Senate

Today, the House released its version of the 2009-2011 budget and supplemental budget for the current biennium.

In their press conference, House budget writers acknowledged that our state’s fiscal problems are too big to be solved with an all-cuts approach. The lasting damage to Washington families and infrastructure by deep cuts will harm our ability to recover when the economy bounces back. In doing so, they noted that they recognized the reasonable approach includes raising revenue.

We are providing this side-by-side (it is an Excel spreadsheet) comparing the three budgets that have been released so far (Governor, Senate and House). It’s not a comprehensive list, but it does point out many of the key differences.

The total level of spending is roughly the same (more on that later today), but there are different choices made within the budget areas: economic security, healthy people and the environment, thriving communities and education and opportunity. (See our budget analysis in the Progress Index). In particular, the House invests more in the area of economic security, while making much larger cuts to higher education.

Stay tuned for more analysis as the day progresses.