OLYMPIA – Gov. Chris Gregoire today signed the 515-page supplemental and 2009-2011 state operating budget, vetoing a handful of sections due to disagreement or for technical corrections. Democratic Sens. Margarita Prentice of Renton and Rodney Tom of Bellevue, chair and vice chair of the Senate Ways & Means Committee, issued the following statements:

Sen. Margarita Prentice said: “On the vast majority of difficult issues we faced during this session, we agreed with Gov. Gregoire. But it shouldn’t come as a surprise that we’ll have a few disagreements on a state budget that is hundreds of pages long.”

“In building this budget, we worked collaboratively with the governor and made positive compromises in many areas. We recognize, though, that many of the cuts we were forced to make are painful to Washington citizens.”

“We all have embraced our responsibility to balance the state’s books, even as the bottom fell out of our state and national economy. One of our biggest responsibilities was to place enough into our state savings accounts to plan for the continued souring of the economy and the effects it will have on the state’s bottom line. There’s no denying that the economic picture for the rest of 2009 is still uncertain, so we will closely monitor the state’s reserves.”

Sen. Rodney Tom said: “It was a difficult budget environment but everyone is facing difficult times. We stepped up in a very judicious and methodical way. We produced a balanced budget with no new taxes.”

“We understand the volatility of the current economic cycle and that’s why the Senate’s original intent was to have over $800 million in reserves. We’re a little disappointed we weren’t able to get there in the final budget.”