Budget Changes Add $1.2B

Gov. Chris Gregoire announced a supplemental budget Tuesday that she said will allow Washington to close the biennium with about $1.2 billion in the bank. The supplemental budget allows the state to make adjustments in the second year of its two-year budget cycle. Some of them appeared to be related to recent flooding that brought much of the state to a standstill, including a proposal to request $50 million in bond authorization for the Chehalis-Centralia Flood Control Project. Gregoire said the final budget will allow the state to close fiscal 2009 with $430 million in a new rainy-day account plus $774 million in unrestricted reserves. “Saving money now is vital to ensure that we have money in the future,” she said in a statement.