Legislature looking for answers

The 2010 Washington Legislature convened for an emergency 60-day session Monday with lawmakers searching for ways to fix a $2.6 billion budget deficit.

Washington’s budget is fairly lean already after legislators tried to make cuts during the last session. Democrats say that unless lawmakers increase taxes and fees the law makers will need to cut even more as they deal with one of the steepest economic declines on record.

Services ranging from higher education to programs for the elderly could be in jeopardy. This session could also bring new tolls to fund road projects, more prisoners being released early to trim prison budgets, and the end of welfare programs without matching federal dollars.

Gov. Chris Gregoire told the press, “It’s also about tax fairness and loopholes. I want a level playing field between in-state businesses and those businesses competing with us out-of-state.”

With cuts reaching into classrooms and hitting the state’s poor and elderly residents, elected officials will be under increasing pressure to find more revenue.

One possible rescue could come in the form of more stimulus money from Washington, but the prospects are uncertain. States last year were able to tap stimulus money to soften the budget cuts, mainly in education and health care, and some of that money remains.

Gregoire said that her Tuesday speech will propose a tax increase package to help close the state’s $2.6 billion state budget deficit.

Typically, analysts say the worst budget years for states are the two years after a recession ends.The states’ budget problems stem from the result of its plunging real estate values, home sales and lingering deep unemployment.