State Senator Says Gregoire Shouldn’t Put Education-Public Safety On Ballot

Governor Gregoire has been touring the state lately,  bemoaning the billion dollar plus shortfall, and touting her "temporary" sales tax to pay for public education, senior citizens and public safety...but a leading Republican Senator says, hold on:

Senator Mark Schoesler (R-Ritzville), one of the most powerful and influential leaders in Olympia says Gregoire is missing the boat.  Instead of asking voters to approve the 500 million "temporary" sales tax, why not allow voters to decide the fate of what he calls the bloated budgets of the Department of Ecology, Commerce, and other state agencies who waste millions of dollars?  Schoesler says Gregoire needs to look at those programs first.  Schoesler doubts the premise of Gregoire's "temporary" status of the proposed tax, which she says, if passed would expire in 2015.  Schoesler remembers the "temporary" taxes passed in 1995 to help with the construction of SafeCo field (Mariners).  Earlier this year a measure that would have made the SafeCo taxes PERMANENT failed by only ONE vote in the state Senate.