They all knew it would be bad when that last budget was penned...here is a bit of news from a Press Release in 2006 by Senator Zarelli, ranking republican on Ways and Means on the budget we just are finishing up.

“The governor has a responsibility to put forth a budget each year. In doing so, we get to peek behind the curtain and see her priorities. By spending our $1.9 billion reserves down to $344 million, it’s apparent that one priority is the fact that Washington’s reserves are for government spending.

“And once again, we are setting forth a budget that literally spends us into a deficit in the very near future. The governor’s own budget office projects that merely carrying forward her 2007-09 budget proposal results in a general fund state deficit of $1.2 billion in 2009-11, and double that in 2011-13.

“The fact is, this budget accounts for the next biennium but doesn’t look out in a responsible way for the future. It uses up one-time money to create more programs and grow the overall budget to nearly $30 billion, a $2.65 billion increase over the current budget.