Stateline has a handy article today on common budget gimmicks used by the states, with copious examples.  Not surprisingly, many of these will be familiar to Washington budget-watchers:

1. Putting off payments
2. Accelerating revenue
3. Using temporary money for recurring expenses
4. Counting on savings that aren't likely to materialize
5. Counting on revenue that isn't likely to materialize

Washington is used as an example of Gimmick #2:

Washington State tried a variation of this tactic back in 1971 and it haunted the budget process for years. To balance the two-year budget that ended in June of that year, the state grabbed revenue from July. In effect, it was using 25 months’ worth of revenue to pay 24 months’ worth of bills. 

Getting spending and revenue back into alignment required writing a budget that would pay 24 months’ worth of bills with 23 months’ worth of revenue — something Washington State wasn’t able to do until 1987. This year, the “25^th month” gimmick came up again as an idea for balancing the budget, but Governor Christine Gregoire and others rejected it as shortsighted.

Washington did, however, make use of Gimmick #1 by delaying some school district payments by one day in order to shift costs from 2009-11 to 2011-13.