2.25.16

Suggested lead:   With two weeks to go in the legislative session, the state House of Representatives debated and OK'd a pair of important budget proposals Thursday. Dan Frizzell has that story.

Wrap (2:00 total):  The spending plans that were passed in the House during a 10-hour series of debates are supplemental budgets, addendums to the biennial budgets that emerged from last year's record-breaking 179-day session.  One is for transportation, the other takes care of the state's general operating expenses.  The bipartisan transportation budget adds about five hundred million dollars to the eight-point-one billion that was allocated last year, with much of it aimed freeing up congestion chokepoints around the state, including I-405 on the east side of Lake Washington, as well as upkeep on aging bridges and roadways. Lawmakers also earmarked $15 million dollars to give officers in the State Patrol a long-overdue raise with the bill, which passed with a comfortable 84-to-13 margin. Mercer Island Democrat Judy Clibborn chairs the House Transportation Committee.:

CLIBBORN:  "I think you can tell that there was a lot of camaraderie that went into making this bill.  It's really about making sure that keep our promises, that we move forward on the things that we decided we would do last year." [:13]. 

Minority Republicans, as expected, locked up on the no side when it came time to vote on the supplemental operating budget, despite the fact that most of its five-hundred million dollars would go toward hiring schoolteachers, building new classrooms, paying for last year's devestating wildfires, and shoring up Washington's ailing mental-health system.  Representative Timm Ormsby, the Spokane Democrat who sits as vice chair of the House budget panel, said he and his colleagues listened to citizens when they sat down to write the budget. 

ORMSBY:  "People's expectations are, when the Legislature meets, take care of business, take care of problems that come up.  That's what this budget does.  This addresses really important areas where we needed to make investments." [:13]. 

Both budgets must still be approved by the Republican-led Senate.  Barring delays, the Legislature is set to adjourn for the year on March 10.  In Olympia, I’m Dan Frizzell.