Do take a couple minutes to read this interesting, in-depth post from Richard Davis on the topic of the almost non-existent news from the state Legislature as they deal with a massive budget shortfall:
Among the sadly dwindling team of reporters covering the Legislature, some are showing impatience with the pace and transparency of budget deliberations. This late in the game, it's fair to assume that one of two things is true: Either there's a plan for resolving the shortfall and no one's willing to talk about it, or there's no plan and no one's willing to admit it. Neither option is particularly appealing.
Davis's post includes a nice collection of relevant links, including this from Brad Shannon at the Olympian:
The simplest answer is the Democrats are at a complete loss over what to do. They waited for the stimulus package to help, but the preliminary revenue forecast of Feb. 19 showed new revenue losses that pretty well wiped out the gains from the stimulus. The Democrats don't appear to have any answers yet.
In sum, with the twist of key legislators staying tight-lipped, there is an increasing sense of a drifting, "what do we do now?" process at which reporters are starting to chafe for lack of information.
Am I alone in sensing that the chaos derived from lack of consensus is ruling the day here, and will soon spill out in public?
Posted by Eric Earling at March 02, 2009 04:16 PM | Email ThisAny bets on how long it is before the state income tax proposal becomes official? I'm guessing when the next revenue forecast shows that things are even worse, that will be the pretext they need.
After all, the Deomcrats new motto is 'never waste a good crisis'.
Posted by: Kato on March 2, 2009 04:12 PMAt some point, salaries have to be cut, or staff reductions are needed. Also, how about some deregulation?
Posted by: swatter on March 2, 2009 04:30 PMGregoire and the Dems exploded state spending in 4 years by 30%, and now they've got ~15% less money. It's a Democrat's nightmare, in an environment where they know that tax increases will clobber revenues even further.
How do they take back the giveaways to their base?
Posted by: Reality on March 2, 2009 04:30 PMWhere are the "conservatives" on this debacle??
NO WHERE!
It showed up on the Seattle Times on-line for a couple hours weeks ago and was pulled down.
Questions--
1) Who are the Investment Board members, who appointed them and what are their qualifications?
I heard Joe Dear quit and ran away like a scared rabbit.
Is that true?
2) Why did they invest so much in risky Hedge Funds?
3) Why aren't they being held accountable?
Did you know that the TAXPAYERS are ultimately responsible?
Hey, I've been following the Budget for years.
The chickens have come home to roost.
I'm just at a complete loss why this Pension Fund issue isn't on the front page or on the front burner for any of you Olympia wonks.
Please explain............
The tax tables are changing for 2009. The porkulus bill stipulates the change must happen by 4/1/09.
Basically, instead of sending you a $400/$800 check in the mail, the government is letting you keep a little more each paycheck to spread that amount out.
Posted by: Palouse on March 3, 2009 08:02 AMWith respect to the pension problem identified by Mr. Cynical, the simple answer for why little coverage is that the problem, while immense, is not urgent. There won't be a tax package to bolster pensions this year.
Posted by: Richard Davis on March 3, 2009 11:17 AMMore importantly Richard is WHY the Investment Board (which Joe Dear ran away from) not being held accountable for the IMMENSE LOSSES which were due to IMMENSE RISK-TAKING???
Help me out Richard.
Once the problem becomes insurmountable, all those responsible will be long gone.
Lucky them.
Unlucky taxpayers.
