FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 1, 2013
CONTACT: Kurt Hammond, Public Information Officer– (50) 664-4055
Harris issues end-of-session statement on operating budget, transportation
State government averted a government shutdown with the Legislature’s passage of a state operating budget last week. Lawmakers also passed a capital budget over the weekend, but the contentious transportation tax revenue package pushed by House Democrats failed to gain enough support in the Senate before Sine Die. Rep. Paul Harris, R-Vancouver and House Minority Whip issued the following statement on the session:
“After long negotiations involving members of both chambers and parties, I was pleased to support a state operating budget that represents a solid compromise, invests heavily in education and protects the taxpayers of Washington. It includes more than one billion dollars in new investments in K-12, it gets us on track in meeting our education funding goals mandated by the state Supreme Court’s McCleary decision and it does not include tuition increases for the first time in almost three decades. Also, this budget did not contain an approximate $900 million dollars in tax increases proposed in previous budgets by House majority leadership. This could have been very harmful to our employers and economic recovery.
“I am grateful the gas tax proposed by the majority in the House died. A ten-cent gas tax, without any transportation reforms, is simply the wrong direction for our state. The people I heard from were overwhelmingly opposed to this plan. Even more significantly for our region, with this plan failing, the $450 million dollars proposed for the Columbia River Crossing will not be appropriated. This gives me a glimmer of hope we can still figure out how to get this right as we await the permitting decision of the U.S. Coast Guard and the specialized audit to see whether the project misused public funds.
“Finally, while the operating and capital budgets show we can work together in the spirit of compromise and get things done, we must figure out a way to improve upon that. We have spent nearly six months in Olympia and we are supposed to be a part-time legislature. We owe it to the taxpayers of Washington to get our work done in a timely manner.”
For more information about Rep. Harris, visit: houserepublicans.wa.gov/harris.
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Rep. Harris’ media:
Washington State House Republican Communications
houserepublicans.wa.gov
455 John L. O’Brien Building
P.O. Box 40600
Olympia, WA 98504-0600 
