In the hubbub around Gov. Gregoire's budget proposal today, one of the dissenters was from a lawmaker close to Gregoire: Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown.

Brown was unhappy that Gregoire's budget assumes about $1 billion from the feds, calling the assumption a "glaring flaw" that the budget juggling look easier than it actually will be.

Brown said that while she, too, is hopeful that Congress and the Obama administration will help states, she doesn't feel comfortable building that hope into a budget.

Gregoire said the assumption is based on her conversations with Obama, and that some additional federal money has already started coming to the state. If anything, Gregoire said, the $1 billion is probably underestimating the federal help.

Brown is especially focused on trying to preserve the social safety net. In a blog post recently, she talked about meeting with Spokane-area children's advocates over breakfast recently. Among them: foster parents, social workers, nurses and teachers.

“Their concerns about the budget gap underscore a central truth about state government,” Brown wrote. “No matter how you add it up, state programs that serve children make up significantly more than half the state budget.”

Protecting those kids, she said, isn't just an economic or political problem, it's a moral one.

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