
	Chris Mulick has worked for the Herald since 1998 and has served as the statehouse correspondent covering state government and politics since 2000. He works year-round out of the Herald's Olympia bureau on the state Capitol campus. Have a question? Send Chris an e-mail and he'll answer the best questions regularly.

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Sunday, Jul. 06, 2008

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Initiatives would expand state deficit

Teresa Glidden sorts Initiative 1029 petition sheets turned in last week at the Secretary of State's Office in Olympia.

We’ve got a story in today’s paper about two of the three citizens initiatives likely to qualify for the fall ballot and what they’ll mean for the state’s projected budget deficit should they be approved by voters.

Bottom line, Tim Eyman’s Initiative 985 and Initiative 1029, backed by the Service Employees International Union, will add another $300 million — based on very early estimates — to the deficit. That’s already projected to be $2.7 billion and could improve or worsen the closer we get to January.

You can find the story here. The estimates are pretty preliminary as the state’s Office of Financial Management isn’t likely to produce official reports before September.

But the Department of Revenue estimated how much in sales tax revenue on the sale of new and used cars would be diverted from the general fund for Eyman’s congestion relief measure. And supporters of the home care measure based its estimated financial impacts based upon figures produced by nonpartisan committee staff for a similar measure before the Legislature this year.

These figures offer some orders of magnitude. Clearly, the initiatives won’t be a major driver behind the looming deficit. But they’re not making it disappear, either.

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