The Legislature should be willing to reopen the two-year state operating budget approved in 2007 if that’s what it takes to bring spending more in line with revenue, said Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima.

The state’s quarterly revenue forecast was released this afternoon. It predicts the state treasury will take in $423 million less in revenue during the 2007-09 biennium than expected in the previous quarterly forecast, from November.

“I don’t believe the favorable economic times are over yet for our state,” King said, “but I do think we’ve seen the last of the abnormally high revenue growth tied to the housing and construction markets, and increased consumer spending.”

State government spending has gone up 33 percent since 2005. Combine that with today’s forecast, and it appears the state is headed for a deficit of at least 2 billion dollars in the next biennium, King continued.

The Legislature adopts supplemental budgets in even-numbered years to make adjustments to the base two-year budgets adopted in odd-numbered years. The new revenue forecast will help shape this year’s supplemental budget.

“The problem isn’t a lack of revenue, it’s an overabundance of spending on entitlements and programs that really aren’t priorities of government,” King said. “We can’t address the projected deficit through the supplemental budget alone. If the Legislature is serious about matching spending with the available revenue, we’ll need to go back into the base budget adopted last year and re-examine its priorities. This is not something to leave for the next Legislature.”

The House of Representatives is expected to issue its operating budget proposal next week, with the Senate’s expected Feb. 25.