It is a potentially fascinating turn of affairs shortly after our recently concluded campaign season, that Governor Gregoire's budget sure looks an awful lot like that which a Governor Dino Rossi might have proposed. Though he didn't win, the bull's-eye he placed on the state budget may well have some policy repercussions in the coming months.
Notably, the Gregoire budget suspends parts of the very same voter-approved education initiatives that Rossi was pummeled for by the Gregoire campaign and her Democratic allies: to the tune of over $500 million. It turns out that yes indeed, initiatives that increase spending without raising taxes (or eliminating other programs) to pay for them are especially unsustainable in difficult budgetary times. Implicit in that is those who acknowledge such fiscal reality do not in turn hate kids...especially poor ones.
Meanwhile, for those interested in a little schadenfreude, the WEA shouldn't feel too bad, SEIU is getting stiffed on initiative victories too. That's not any surprise to any watcher of budget reality, but somewhat delicious nonetheless.
Either way, this should be an interesting legislative session indeed. Republicans are virtually the only ones praising this budget (which wouldn't be so severe if Democrats hadn't gone on an excessive spending spree in years prior). Some prudent Democrats are pointing out the budget might not make enough cuts given the reality of the numbers. And in sum, the Gregoire budget looks eerily similar to the bare bones budget Gary Locke put forward in 2002 when the smelly stuff was hitting the fan back then.
Question: who will fill the role Dino Rossi played in that budgetary crisis? That remains to be seen.
Posted by Eric Earling at December 21, 2008 10:07 AM | Email ThisThe more important question is how she will deal with the remaining $3.5 billion shortfall. The only meaningful way is to cut employment levels significantly. A total hiring freeze coupled with non-replacement of retiring employees is a good place to start. Then she can dump the 8,000 employees added to the state payroll during the past four years.
The problem with this whole mess is that the medial refuses to report honestly. They are giving Gregoire a free pass by not holding her feet to the fire. Greqoire's stewardship had been disastrous. The media ran interference for her during the election campaign. Honest reporting now requires the media to admit are propagandists.
Posted by: Paddy on December 21, 2008 10:30 AMWhen are we going to get serious about educating, instead of entertaining and exercising our students.
The rest of the world has figured this out and we continue to run social halls and daycare centers!
Posted by: Charles Hoff on December 21, 2008 12:07 PMWhile this doesn't mean the viaduct is going to lose their 2.8 Billion the legislature may well decide to postpone 520.
Posted by: Douglas Tooley on December 21, 2008 04:09 PMWhile this doesn't mean the viaduct is going to lose their 2.8 Billion the legislature may well decide to postpone 520.
Posted by: Douglas Tooley on December 21, 2008 04:10 PMDoes the GOP candidate need to support elimination of the DOT to earn my support? Nope. There are plenty of more obvious places the state has no business being involved in before I would even think about cutting the DOT. The GOP and its gubernatorial candidates should be identifying these less controversial agencies and programs and illustrating to the public how we could eliminate them and not only get by but be better off for having done so. In many cases it would be as easy as identifying other states that do not have the agencies and are somehow getting by.
Instead we got Dino Rossi who talked about expanding ferry services, bailing out professional sports teams, plus doing all the same stuff Gregoire is doing but with less money.
Posted by: Lysander on December 22, 2008 11:37 AMFull-day kindergarten is not a minus - it's a huge plus. Our test scores have went from 25% of 2nd graders reading at grade level to 85% since we switched to all day kindergarten. Additionally, for most of the schools in the state, it costs so much in transportation to send the kids to half-day classes that the cost of the additional teaching for full-day classes is more than halfway paid for by transportation cost savings.
Secondly, with the economy tanking and the inflation indicators lagging, the Gov's "plan" to not give the teachers' COLAs might not be much of a cost savings, it could be that over the next two years even a half point could be all it takes. What is most disturbing about her education "savings" is the reduction of I-728 which allows the schools to reduce class sizes or offer more classes, rather than just pay the teachers more.
Posted by: Doug on December 22, 2008 06:08 PMhahaha, Ron Paul is not a faux Republican, he's a real Republican. No matter how much you want it not to be true, the original Republican party stood for very limited government, low taxes, individual liberty, and PEACE through diplomacy and free trade.
Posted by: blindman on December 23, 2008 01:50 AMThe money spout must have been turned back on full blast again as the taxpayer is being flushed down the self flushing self cleaning toilet.
Posted by: gs on December 23, 2008 03:23 PM