Gregoire's budget proposal - Point Four

What's not mentioned in the two news items I've quoted in my initial posted is that Gregoire said that her budget proposal is akin to "spending money like a family would". In my family, if we were to budget for X amount of dollars in a year, and we were to come into some additional money, regardless of the source, we would use that money to pay existing bills, then sock away the rest for a financial crisis in the future. We would not, for example, spend the money on a digital flat-screen TV when we already have a television. The flat-screen would be nice, but the welfare of our family is not dependent on getting one. Nor would replacing our washer and dryer with new ones be. If something goes wrong with our TV, or with our appliances, we work around those problems, because we can't afford to put those items above our ability to pay our rent, our utility bills, etc. If the money in the state coffers were truly there to fund the sort of programs Gov. Gregoire is calling for, that would be nice. Tsunami warning systems? Great idea! But the "surplus" she's anxious to spend was gathered to pay for existing programs - it's not a new "revenue source". Budget-wise, what happened is that, under Gov. Locke, the state taxed everyone more than they thought they were, and now - instead of "paying bills like a family would", she wants to get a new flat-pannel TV on the assumption that everyone is dependent upon a cripser television image.