Whether to raise taxes to fund state employee contracts sticking point in budget debate

Now that the House and Senate have approved their versions of the 2015-17 budget, legislative budget negotiators will be hard at work trying to come to an agreement before the end of session on April 26. While both budgets are fairly close on overall education and social service spending, the major difference is whether to raise taxes as proposed by the House to fund in-part the state employee contracts secretly negotiated behind closed doors last summer by Governor Inslee. The House would approve the contracts and pay for them with tax increase while the Senate rejects them and instead provides a capped amount of funding within available resources for the Governor and unions to renegotiate within . . . READ MORE