Republicans from the state House of Representatives will be the first to make their budget plan known.

Following up on their “solutions-oriented” approach from last year, and their Fund Education First proposal from earlier this month, minority party House Republicans will release the first supplemental budget of the 2012 legislative session at a news conference in Olympia on Feb. 17.

The event will begin at noon in the House Republican Caucus room in the state Capitol Building.

The legislators say they intend to show how an all-priorities budget that protects education, public safety and the most vulnerable can be achieved without a major tax increase.

Gov. Christine Gregoire on Nov. 21 released her proposed supplemental operating budget,which included a proposal to ask voters to buy back cuts she made to many core services through a three-year, half-cent percent increase in the state sales tax rate.

House and Senate Democrats, along with Senate Republicans, are expected to release their budget packages next week.

The 2012 legislative session is scheduled to adjourn March 8.

This entry was posted on February 17, 2012 at 5:37 pm and is filed under Budget & Taxes, Economy, Education, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.