The Washington Senate approved a $78.5 billion operating budget plan that targets the state's wealthiest residents and biggest employers in order to protect essential services. Critics remain concerned this budget plan could drive up costs for working families.

"A budget that relied only on cuts and reductions would just really set us backward as a state," Democratic Senator June Robinson, the lead senate budget writer, said on "Seattle's Morning News" on KIRO Newsradio. "It would be harmful to people, but it would also be very challenging for years to come to grow out of that. So we approached this problem by looking at a balance."