Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - February 18, 2000
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136

Locke says GOP budget sacrifices education

OLYMPIA — Gov. Gary Locke criticized the House Republicans' supplemental budget today, saying the proposal "favors concrete over kids."

The House Republicans' budget proposal spends $1 billion less than the governor proposed for schools. Locke said the GOP plan sacrifices long-term needs in education for a short-term transportation plan.

"This proposal sacrifices education for transportation. It favors concrete over kids, spending away the future of our education system on a short-term transportation plan," Locke said about the House Republicans' budget plan. "It doesn't fund 1,000 new teachers we need to reduce class sizes and provide more individual attention to students. And it doesn't provide enough funding for Washington Promise Scholarships, which low- and middle-income families need to send their kids to college."

"I support transportation, but not at the expense of our children," Locke said. The governor this week said he would support more than $1 billion in additional transportation funding, including $525 million in new highway projects and $550 million to help local transit agencies and the state ferry system cope with revenue losses due passage of Initiative 695.

"My budget proposal takes a balanced approach," the governor said. "We keep our focus on making our schools the best in the nation while responding to immediate funding needs in public safety, transit, ferries and critical state highway projects."

Locke said he welcomed the House Republicans' interest in contracting out more state services to private or non-profit service providers.

"But it is just as important to provide collective bargaining to state employees, and to reform the state's civil service system," Locke said, "if we are to achieve our goals in streamlining state government."

Locke said the House Republicans' budget cuts $47 million from his K-12 public schools budget, as well as $3 million from his budget for higher education. The governor said the Republican budget also does not include his proposed Learning Improvement Tax Credit, which would allow local school districts to keep $1 billion in property tax revenue over the next five years that would otherwise flow into hard-to-reach state reserve accounts.

"The most important thing we can do as a state right now is to create a school system in which students get the individual attention they need to meet our tough learning standards," the governor said. "It appears the House Republicans are focused on short-sighted transportation funding measures that don't begin to address our long-term transportation funding needs."

Noting that the state of Washington was a national leader in dedicating tobacco litigation proceeds to tobacco prevention and control efforts, the governor said he was very disappointed to see that House Republicans want to draw down the $100 million anti-smoking fund established last year by $90 million.

"Less than a year after creating the fund, the House Republicans want to virtually eliminate the comprehensive anti-smoking effort planned by the Department of Health," the governor said.

Locke said the House Republicans' budget proposal hurts working families and the environment. He said it eliminates an apprenticeship training program, eliminates a mortgage- and rental-assistance program for laid-off timber and fish workers, greatly weakens consumer protection in the Office of the Insurance Commissioner, and cuts the air-quality program that protects people from polluters.

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