News Releases
Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - June 26, 2003
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136

Gov. Gary Locke Signs Priority-Based State Operating Budget into Law

Gov. Gary Locke today signed a $23 billion state operating budget, capping his campaign to protect the state’s struggling economy by identifying and paying for citizen priorities without a general tax increase.

The two-year General Fund budget, which takes effect next Tuesday, July 1, was based on Locke’s “Priorities of Government” spending proposal he sent to the Legislature in December. The governor’s proposal reflected his government-wide order, issued last fall, to identify and fund citizens’ most vital priorities – within existing resources.

“This budget contains a lot of pain,” Locke said. “We had to cut back on good programs and take other difficult steps in order to live within our means but I know this budget is a prudent approach to difficult economic times, and I know it is something we had to do.”

“After filling a $2.6 billion shortfall, we still produced a budget that supports the services that citizens consider most vital – K-12 education, higher education, care for our most vulnerable citizens, environmental protection, public safety and economic development,” Locke said.

Locke praised the Legislature for following his lead, and in some cases improving on some elements of his initial proposal. He noted that his approach lays the groundwork for continued priority-driven spending in coming years.

“While other states are resorting to creative accounting, tax increases and other short-term solutions, we’re making the hard choices that the public expects from its leaders,” Locke said. “This will serve us well next year when we will continue to face budget challenges.”

The governor disagreed with some of the Legislature’s decisions, however. Before signing the budget, the governor vetoed items that increased the total budget by about $23 million, or just one-tenth of 1 percent of the budget.

The budget highlights include:

·$10.5 billion – nearly half of total General Fund spending – for basic education services for 1 million public-school students. It maintains efforts to reduce class sizes, increases funding to improve academic achievement, and still helps get low-performing schools on track.

·$2.6 billion to fund the education of more than 215,000 students at the state’s colleges and universities, including more than 1,200 new enrollment slots. Also includes more than 500 slots for high-demand enrollments, such as engineering, computer science and nursing.

·$4 billion in state funding for Child and Adult Protective Services, emergency food and housing, mental health care, institutions, nursing homes, foster care, temporary assistance to needy families, employment training for disabled adults and child support services.

·$120 million is included to nurture economic development through strategies that create new jobs, assist emerging new industries such as biotechnology and clean energy, assist local economic development efforts, operate the Washington Trade and Convention Center and market Washington products to the world.

·$3.6 billion in state funds for health care for more than 1 million children, adults and families.

·$1.4 billion to pay for the state prison system, supervision of prisoners after their release, supervision and treatment of sex offenders, confinement and treatment of chronic juvenile offenders, the state Crime Lab, aid to crime victims, help for at-risk youth, emergency preparedness for natural disasters and terrorism, and the State Patrol.

·$297 million to protect the state’s clean air and water, and its forests, farmlands, fish and parks.

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MEDIA ONLY: For copies of the governor’s veto messages, please call the Governor’s Communications Office at 360-902-4136.



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