No one likes the budget that went to Gov. Gary Locke earlier this week for his signature.
And it is the right thing to do.
The $23.1 billion spending plan eschews tax increases and embraces cutbacks as the way to balance the books at a time of economic uncertainty.
The plan received unexpected support from the House, the same organization that couldn’t fill in a $2.6 billion economic pothole during the Legislature’s regular session.
The deed was done with salary freezes, state employee layoffs and setting aside education funding approved during fatter times.
When called back to vote in a special session, lawmakers didn’t fiddle with the plan, gulping and passing it on to Locke.
The plan is the right one because it sends the right message to the one sector that can pull this state out of the doldrums, business.
For governments, economic downturns occur when revenue, tax revenue, drops. Tax revenue drops when business slows and jobs are lost.
Business in this state has been dealing with the day-to-day realities of a slowing economy for nearly three years. That our elected officials have now applied those lessons to the state budget is a strong signal that government will be a prudent partner in an upturn that some economists predict is on the doorstep.
Locke and lawmakers now need to make one more move: approve a package of incentives that will prove attractive enough to land the Boeing 7E7 project. Keeping the newest Boeing plane here isn’t caving to corporate blackmail, as some have said. It is investing in the people of this state and sending a clear message to all businesses that Washington is a good place to build a profitable future.
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