Nealey statement on House Democrat budget measure
The House of Representatives today approved a bill that would make reductions of $222 million for the current fiscal years' budget. The approved legislation would still leave a $378 million shortfall for the 2009-11 fiscal cycle, which ends June 30 of this year.
Rep. Terry Nealey, R-Dayton, voted against House Bill 1086 and issued the following statement:
“My fellow House Republicans and I believe we must abide by the state constitution which places basic education as Washington's paramount duty. The budget Republicans offered today would protect K-12 education. Unfortunately, the majority party turned down our amendment and chose to go with deep cuts to schools. I'm especially concerned that this bill retroactively goes after money that has already been allocated by our school districts for K-4 early learning programs. That's going to greatly affect all of our schools.
“I'm also very concerned with the games being played in this budget to move expenses into the next fiscal cycle rather than taking care of that responsibility now. We need to solve these budget problems immediately so that we are ready to take on a much larger shortfall for the 2011-13 cycle, rather than making that problem worse. This bill continues to procrastinate away from addressing the realities of the budget and tries to push this problem into the future, which is what got us here in the first place.”
