Tracking that `Obama Claus' money
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Have you noticed that we no longer hear the big dogs talking about "stimulus" money from Uncle Sam? The Obama White House, Congress and Governor Gregoire's office now like the sound of the word "recovery." Tomato, tomahtoe.
So the White House and Gregoire have set up websites that help us track how much "recovery" money we get from the Other Washington. Some, including health care and transportation dollars, already have begun to flow. Anyway, in the name of transparency, Gregoire has created www.recovery.wa.gov. The techno-savvy Obama White House offers us www.recovery.gov.
The governor and state lawmakers, who are girding for a budget gap of roughly $8.5 billion, will love every penny that comes westward, although some of it is in "silos" that can be used only for very specific purposes, and not necessarily to backfill the big budget hole. One rough guess is that "Obama Claus," as both critics and backers of the recovery mother lode like to call it, will reduce the spending gap by perhaps $2 billion.
That still leaves a monster gap. Early guess is that Democratic lawmakers will use cuts, savings, fund shifts, freezes and other techniques to solve most of it, and probably turn to the ballot box to ask voter approval for taxes for the rest. Few are saying this out loud, and the governor still is publicly pushing for an all-cut solution.
For Olympia-watchers, this is almost the only game in town this session.
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Secretary of State
Steve Hobbs
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