The Blog

Governor Chris Gregoire

02/03/09

These are hard times that call for sacrifice and reform. As you can imagine, balancing our state budget required making some very difficult decisions.

You now have the opportunity to create your own state budget. This week, I added an interactive tool to my Web site that allows users to change spending levels in several policy areas until the $5.7 billion budget gap is eliminated. As you click through the calculator, you�re encouraged to keep an eye on the bottom line to see how your choices affect the budget.

I hope this exercise gives you an understanding of the difficult choices our state government must make when dollars are scarce.

Your feedback is important. If you don�t like a budget decision, I want to know how you would fix it. What would you sacrifice instead?

The budget is a work in progress, and my proposal is the first step in a long process that will continue in the Legislature in the coming months.

To view the budget calculator, please visit: http://www.governor.wa.gov/priorities/budget/default.asp.