Remember when Gov. Gregoire said the state's Basic Health plan, which covers tens of thousands of low-income residents, was going to have to be cut entirely to help cover Washington's $2.6 billion budget shortfall? And then remember when she said it could be saved?

A person could be forgiven for feeling a little jerked around—or, at least, a bit led around by the nose—over the last two months with this on-again, off-again, still-purely-hypothetical Basic Health cliffhanger.

But there's no resolution yet.

Yes, the governor has proposed a budget that includes money to keep Basic Health going. But, says Sandeep Kaushik, spokesman for the coalition Rebuilding Our Economic Future, which is fighting to keep "core programs" like Basic Health funded...

The question on the table is: Will the legislature raise revenue so these core services can be preserved? The funding for these core programs has not been identified yet. There have been what I would call very strong and positive statements by the governor and state leaders saying these kinds of cuts are not in keeping with the values of our state. She’s absolutely right about that. But that does mean that these programs are in any way safe until the program is actually funded and approved.

In other words, a few things have to happen before we know whether the legislature will come up with the money to save Basic Health. First, the legislature has to suspend I-960 (as discussed yesterday). Then it has to pass whatever money-saving and tax-loophole-closing measures it can think of to show that it's not turning to "revenue increases" (aka taxes) as a first resort. And then... it's probably going to have to raise taxes.

“There’s not going to be any other way to do it," says Kaushik. "Revenue is going to have to be part of the equation.”

Once we know how much revenue is being raised (aka how much taxes are being increased), then we'll know whether Basic Health will continue to exist.