OLYMPIA — The Washington Legislature has approved a $38.2 billion two-year state operating budget, taking swift action Monday night to avoid a government shutdown.

The House passed the plan on a 90-8 vote just hours after the Senate passed it on a 38-10 vote. The bill now goes to the governor.

In a written statement issued immediately after the vote, Gov. Jay Inslee said he planned to sign the budget June 30.

He thanked lawmakers for working to find a middle ground. Inslee had to sign the budget by midnight June 30 to prevent dozens of state agencies and other offices from closing completely or partially. Thousands of state workers have already received notice that they would be temporarily laid off starting July 1 if a budget wasn’t adopted in time.

“I’m certainly disappointed that it took this long,” said Sen. Brian Hatfield, D-Raymond, in a statement June 29, “but in the end we found common ground and will place the state on solid ground over the next two years. … This budget has a lot for middle class families in the 19th District. We invested another $1.5 billion into public education. We are lowering tuition at public colleges and universities. We targeted vital social services that lend a helping hand to children, families and those with disabilities.”

In Pacific County, budget adoption means fisheries and state parks will remain open after fears that they could be partially or, in the case of the parks, completely shut down if the Legislature had failed to come to an agreement. This would have closed down Cape Disappointment State Park for what is expected to be a very busy three-day Fourth of July weekend.

Still, the budget could have implications for state-run hatcheries in the county.

An amendment presented by Rep. Kristine Lytton, D-Anacortes, last week as budget discussions were still in full swing would “relocate all fish production at the Nemah hatchery to the Naselle hatchery.”

This would result in no net change to appropriated levels, the amendment statement submitted by Lytton said. “If the fish and wildlife commission determines that fish production capacity is insufficient to meet fish production needs at the Forks Creek or Naselle hatcheries, the department may continue fish production at the Nemah hatchery.”

The amendment produced an uproar in the recreational fishing community represented by the Coastal Conservation Association, saying it destroyed sport fishing opportunities in and around Willapa Bay where the hatcheries are located. The group’s leader encouraged members to write to Rep. Brian Blake, D-Aberdeen, who they believed was the driving force behind the amendment.

Blake, saying several of his colleagues had received e-mails about the matter, responded with a statement of his own.

Hatcheries produce more fish than will ever be caught, he said. “The production of these fish are mainly paid for by general fund tax dollars in the Washington State budget.” The thousands of surplus (or uncaught) fish are sold at a loss to the state to private corporations and turned into low-value products or donated to foodbanks.

“In order to maximize recreational fishing opportunities in the 19th Legislative District, a plan to revise hatchery production at the Naselle Hatchery has been proposed,” Blake wrote. He pointed out that while there are three boat launches that provide access to stock released from the Naselle Hatchery, there are no public boat launches on the Nemah River.

The Willapa Bay and the rivers and hatcheries that fuel its salmon have just come under a new management plan passed by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission in mid-June. Gillnetters who fish this area say the plan will take them out of the water there,

(Look for a more detailed story about hatchery cuts in next week’s Observer.)

“There is much here that will help Washingtonians across the state, Inslee wrote.” It makes a bold statement about what we value.”

“With this budget we’ve created a strategic compromise that gives us a path forward toward keeping the government running and protecting all of our residents, particularly our most vulnerable,” said Rep. Ross Hunter, the House’s Democratic budget writer.

The Legislature is in the midst of a third overtime session. Full details of the budget were released publicly Monday afternoon, two days after lawmakers announced they had reached an agreement. The bipartisan agreement spends an estimated $1.3 billion on K-12 basic education, and it phases in tuition cuts at the state’s universities, as well as community and technical colleges.

By the end of the second year of the budget, the state will reduce the cost of tuition at the University of Washington and Washington State University by 15 percent, students at the remaining four-year universities will see a 20 percent cut, and tuition at community and technical colleges the state’s colleges and universities and community colleges will get a 5 percent cut.

The budget also fully pays for collective bargaining agreements for state employees and raises for teachers, and it puts more money into the state’s mental health system and other social service programs. Lawmakers also took action addressing a voter-approved initiative to reduce class sizes that would cost $2 billion over the next two years if implemented. The House voted late Monday night 72-26 to delay that measure for four years.

Republican Sen. Andy Hill, the chamber’s key budget writer, lauded the tuition cuts as among the major investments made in education. “It is giving relief for working families. It increases accessibility to higher education. It reduces the debt load that our students are graduating with,” he said.

Lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate had struggled for months on the two-year state budget because of differing ideas on how to address a state Supreme Court mandate to put more money into the state’s basic education system.

Democrats initially sought a new capital-gains tax, while Republicans insisted that no taxes were needed because of increasing state revenues.

Within the last week of the second 30-day special session, Democrats dropped the new tax idea and instead sought additional revenue through closing or limiting several tax exemptions. In a counteroffer, Republicans offered up a few different tax exemptions to be closed. The agreed-upon plan includes more than $180 million in revenue from the closure of some exemptions, including a preferential business and occupation tax for royalty income, and an increase in penalties for late tax payments to the state Department of Revenue.

Hunter said that, ultimately, while the tax debate will likely come up again in future sessions, lawmakers needed to compromise.

“It was June,” he said. “We needed to come to an agreement with the Senate.”

With a politically divided Legislature, “it takes longer,” Hill said.

“The good news about that is, when you have divided government, everybody has a say in it,” he said. “So I believe you have better policy and longer-lasting policy.”

Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn issued a statement saying the budget fell short of what the state Supreme Court required to address the state’s education system, and he urged the high court to “take whatever steps are necessary to bring the Legislature back into session as soon as possible.”

Also Monday night, the Senate passed a transportation revenue bill that includes an 11.9 cent incremental increase in the gas tax. That budget was expected to be voted on in the House June 30.