Ross Hunter

Category: Budget

  • March 12 Town Hall

    The 2011 legislative session is now halfway through. State Sen. Rodney Tom (D-Bellevue) and Reps. Ross Hunter (D-Medina) and Deb Eddy (D-Kirkland) invite Eastside residents to a Town Hall on Saturday, March 12 for an update and discussion on the budget and other legislation of interest. When: Saturday, March 12 at 10:30 a.m. Where: Redmond…

  • Supplemental Budget Action

    Today the House and Senate passed a bipartisan supplemental budget bill that sets us up to finish the 2010 fiscal year (ending in June 2011) in the black. In December we faced a $1.2 billion shortfall between expected revenue and expected expenses and solved $588 million of the problem. We solved another $367 million today,…

  • Best new news service: Undead Olympia

    At last someone is analyzing Olympia news with a sense of humor. I only get gashed a little in their article on the budget we put out last week. http://www.undeadolympia.com/2011/01/18/ross-hunters-budget-proposal-you-win-some-you-ooze-some/ A good quote: Though vampires, zombies, and werewolves are glad to see his budget proposal eliminate the Basic Health program, reduce care for the elderly,…

  • Answering Email

    Answering Email

    I’m sitting at my desk in Olympia answering email, mostly about the budget. Lots of people are writing in about different subjects, but all have the same theme – protect MY program. This is pretty interesting and useful data, but it’s hard to make decisions based on it. For example, I get a lot of…

  • Ross Elected chairman of Ways and Means

    Earlier this week the House Democrats voted to make me chairman of the Ways and Means committee in the House, responsible for tax policy and crafting the biennial budget. I’m pleased that my co-workers believe I am capable of leading the process of creating a budget in these difficult times. The Finance committee that I…

  • Special Session Budget Report

    This weekend the Legislature met in a special session to address the budget shortfall. Unlike what you’ve heard in the press, we can’t all arrive in Olympia, figure out what we’re going to do, get agreement from 147 legislators, write it down on scraps of paper and call it a day. Turning all the decisions…

  • Revenue collections, same store sales – good news!

    Washington’s revenue collections report out this week was good news. The actual revenue was $2.5 million above the forecast. Being off by $2.5 million (0.3%) means Dr. Raha hit the bullseye – this is within the margin of error. Perhaps I shouldn’t be so excited about a flat collections report, but flat is the new…

  • State Budget Options

    I’ve posted a document to the site that has a number of proposals on how we should address the budget situation we face this year. Like most other states our revenue has tumbled as a result of the change in spending habits coming from the economic downturn. I believe we face a structural change in…

  • Tech Jobs in Washington

    Last week I met with the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) to talk about their agenda for 2011. No surprise, it’s about jobs here in Washington. What surprised me was how they chose to spend their time in the meeting. We had an hour set aside (but took 2). They started with over 45 minutes…

  • Budget Thoughts

    This email came to me early in the session in 2010 and was incredibly touching. It’s easy to get involved in the details of the budget in a very technical way and forget the human needs we try to address. As a policy geek I’m perhaps more subject to this than other people. Dear Rep. Hunter,…