Governor's Latest Budget Slashes Environmental Programs

"As we reported last week, a large coalition of statewide environmental groups, the Environmental Priorities Coalition, has scaled back its legislative priorities for 2010. Goal No. 1: Preserve funding for existing environmental programs while restoring money for some of the programs, like the Water Quality Account and the Model Toxics Control Act, that the legislature slashed last year. Judging from the second-round budget Gov. Chris Gregoire released earlier this week, however, even that modest goal may be out of reach.

After unveiling an “all-cuts” budget that would fill the state’s $2.6 billion budget shortfall by slashing state programs like children’s health care, all-day kindergarten, and $18 million in environmental programs, Gregoire released a second budget this week that includes $779 million in so-called “buybacks”—programs that would be restored through a combination of federal money and new state taxes. However, those buybacks do not restore a single environmental program...."