K-12 education is Washington State’s “paramount duty” according to the state constitution, so it’s surprising perhaps to learn that as the AP’s Mike Baker puts it, “Wash. budget deal relies on massive education cuts.” From cuts in teacher and staff salaries, suspensions of cost-of-living adjustments (not deferments), and suspensions of voter-approved class-size limits, legislators have carved out about half of the total of the $4.6 billion in spending cuts from education.

Higher education was similarly affected:

Budget cuts of more than $500 million are offset by double-digit tuition increases in each of the next two years, compounding similar hikes in the past two years. By 2013, a student at the University of Washington–where tuition will go up 16 percent each year–will pay double the costs of tuition than students did five years ago.

Some Republicans voted against the budget, calling the cuts to education “unacceptable.” They are probably correct. The Democrats’ strategy seems to be to offload education costs by betting that local school districts will pass levies to make up the difference. So you, the taxpayer, will still be on the hook, but they can trumpet their fiscal responsibility.

Salaries for elected officials will not be cut–they thought about it, but it was simply too difficult–though the State’s Basic Health Plan will “save” $130 million by not taking new enrollees. At the same time, legislators would reduce hospital payments by $110 million, so it’s pretty clear that if you don’t have insurance and get sick, they would prefer you die in the street, rather than visit the ER.

Sacrifices needed to be made everywhere–except by elected officials, of course, and except by corporations given tax breaks. Spokane’s Peace & Justice Action League (not a band name) writes:

Of the astounding 567 existing tax breaks in Washington, only 95 have ever actually been reviewed by the Legislature. Although a bipartisan committee recommended terminating 29 unjustified tax breaks to recover millions in lost revenue, nothing was done.

Your Democratic majority, ladies and gentlemen!

Meanwhile, Governor Gregoire succeeded in killing the medical marijuana bill despite bipartisan support for it. Gregoire manufactured a threat of federal crackdowns on state employees as an excuse for a veto of major elements of SB 5073. Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, called the bill’s failure “the greatest disappointment of my legislative career.” Medical marijuana patients with legal prescriptions are just as vulnerable to police harassment as before, and all across the state earlybird medical marijuana dispensaries find themselves in a precarious legal position.

Closer to home, a judge has ruled that Seattle voters can weigh in on the tunnel after all. Though it’s unclear what practical effect the vote would have, the pro-tunnel majority on the Seattle City Council seem to realize a very public rebuke could be in the offing. After questioning the legality of the vote, and considering a hasty workaround, the Council has now decided that the whole matter is beneath them. “It’s going to be a referendum about nothing,” said Council President Richard Conlin, who is not up for re-election this year but will be in 2013.

Meanwhile, funding for parks and libraries, and the condition of the roads we already have can be expected to continue their decline.