Offering no solutions runs in the Party. They sound like the useless braggart back in Jr. High: "I could do it if I wanted to. But, I don't want to!."



How would GOP fix state budget?

BRAD SHANNON
The Olympian

Republicans in the Washington Legislature have united around a clear message that taxes are not needed to bridge a $2.8 billion state budget gap this year. But the minority party is refusing to show exactly how it could get to a budget balanced without new revenue.

Top GOP budget writers said in interviews this week that it’s just not worth spelling out details for the public – or for majority Democrats, whom they blame for the state’s financial mess. The Democrats, by contrast, say they need more taxpayer money to blunt cuts to the health care safety net and public schools by raising anywhere from the House’s call for $857 million in new revenue to the Senate’s $918 million plan.

“I don’t think you’re going to find that coming from anybody,” Rep. Gary Alexander of Thurston County, the ranking House Republican on the budget, said when asked for his no-tax plan. “I could get to $2.8 billion if I was given the authority to do it. The point is, why would you come up with ideas when they (Democrats) have no intention to do anything with these proposals?”

Democrats say the GOP should do more than make claims. One lawmaker said it appears the minority party’s solution is to offer last-minute amendments to the budget bill that cut here and there but leave gaps and don’t solve the problem.

“With 11 days left, where is the package?” House Ways and Means vice chairman Mark Ericks, D-Bothell, asked Friday.

“Is that the way they want to offer suggestions? To wait to the last minute and offer amendments?” Ericks added. “If you were complaining about us not taking any ideas, wouldn’t you at least provide the list?”

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It's not where you take things from - it's where you take them to. Jean-Luc Godard