The lowlight of the 45th District candidates forum, held Oct. 12, was Rep. Goodman claiming that the current budget was 2.5 billion dollars less than the previous budget.

I asked him afterwards to explain that comment as I knew for a fact what the state spent increased yet again as it always does. He explained the 2.5 billion reduction was from what the state collected in taxes from the citizens of Washington. The source of the rest of the money in the budget was TARP money from the federal government.

I then said but the federal government gets its money from you and me, the citizens. He then tried to explain that since only one-50th of the federal money comes from Washington citizens, that was not a bad thing.

And that is why we have budget issues in the state of Washington.

Steve Baus, Woodinville