Wash. Lawmakers Consider Ideas To Limit Rising Debt 2011/02/26 at 6:40 am
Wash. Lawmakers Consider Ideas To Limit Rising Debt
Austin Jenkins
02/22/2011
TRANSCRIPT
OLYMPIA, Wash. Washingtons total debt load is twice the national median and one of the highest in the nation. Thats the warning Tuesday from the State Treasurer. Now lawmakers are considering two proposals to cap how much Washington can borrow for capital construction projects.
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Consider this. Before Washington puts a dime towards schools or health care in the next two-year budget, it must make its debt payment.
Think of it as the states mortgage for decades of borrowing to build infrastructure like K-12 and higher education buildings. In the next two years, that payment is nearly $2 billion.
Derek Kilmer: Thats too much.
Democratic State Senator Derek Kilmer wants to cap the states debt limit at seven percent. But allow a nine percent debt load during bad economic times in order to help jump start the economy.
Derek Kilmer: Unfortunately you have a time like now where youre very constrained in terms of how much investment you can make even though you have a lot of out-of-work construction workers and its cheap to build.
This counter-cyclical approach to borrowing has bipartisan support. But it would require a constitutional amendment.
And some critics are skeptical it would work as envisioned. Washingtons State Treasurer James McIntire says lawmakers need to do something to rein-in the debt.
On the Web:
SB 8215 – Debt Reduction Act of 2011:
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=8215amp;year=2011
Video – Sen. Kilmer on SB 8215:
http://blog.senatedemocrats.wa.gov/kilmer/debt-reduction-act-of-2011/
Washington Debt Affordability Study:
http://www.tre.wa.gov/documents/debtAffordStudy-2011.pdf
Copyright 2010 Northwest News Network
Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=133978655amp;ft=3amp;f=133978655