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November 7, 2010 in City
State leaders see tighter coffer, bipartisan tilt
OLYMPIA – Washington politicians who had any doubt the public is in no mood for more taxes should have had that cleared up Tuesday. For the budget struggles ahead next year, voter sentiment is clear: Don’t ask us for more money, cut the budget.
Voters sank a proposal for a state income tax on the wealthy, struck down temporary taxes on soda, candy, bottled water and some processed foods, and reinstated a two-thirds supermajority for passing any new taxes.
“There’s no new revenue,” Gov. Chris Gregoire said Friday. “There’s now less revenue than before.”
The temporary taxes, passed by Democrats last spring to avoid deeper budget cuts, will come off on Dec. 2. That should slice about $55 million off what the state thought it would collect between December and July 1, and another $218 million off projected revenues for the 2011-’13 biennium.
But that’s a relatively small amount compared to the $4.8 billion gap between projected revenues for the next two years and the amount the state would need to pay for all the programs, policies and personnel it currently has.
To close that gap, Gregoire will prepare an all-cuts budget in the next month that will include what she calls “some pretty draconian cuts.” It may eliminate prescription drug coverage for Medicaid patients, dental and podiatrist coverage for adults on state health insurance, levy equalization for poorer school districts or even the state’s Basic Health plan. For legislators who object to the cuts, she’ll offer a simple challenge: “Give me an alternative.”
That alternative is not likely to include a tax hike, which would require two-thirds approval in both houses.
“I think the voters were clear: Don’t spend more money than you have,” said Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla. “They didn’t just say it. They shouted it.”
Voters also defeated plans to “get government out of their lives,” turning down two ballot measures to end state control of liquor sales and another that would have added private insurance to the state’s industrial insurance program.
“It’s not clear to me that there was a message about what we did or did not do that led to the losses,” said Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane. “I think it’s a reflection of a tough economy. People want to focus on jobs, and they want government to be as responsive as possible.”
Democrats did buck the national trend of turning control over to Republicans and managed to avoid the huge switch of the last big GOP wave of 1994, said House Speaker Pro Tem Jeff Morris, D-Anacortes. But they face slimmer margins in controlling the two chambers. Several legislative races in Western Washington remain too close to call, but current results suggest the GOP will pick up at least seven seats in the House and four in the Senate.
Smaller majorities might force the Legislature into a more cooperative and bipartisan mode, Brown and Hewitt agreed.
“Narrow margins in the Senate are clearly the norm for most of the last 30 years,” Brown said. They force more cooperation because any major legislation takes agreement from both sides. “We’ll need to put a budget together with the support of both caucuses,” she added.
Hewitt is expecting more Republican input in the next two years than the last two, when they were in a 31-18 minority in the Senate and “relegated to sitting on the sidelines.”
“I think the public is better served,” he said. “There really hasn’t been much public debate.”
Republicans would like to begin that public debate as soon as possible.
On Friday, Hewitt and House Minority Leader Richard DeBolt delivered a letter to Gregoire, asking her to call a special session in early December to make some changes to her orders for an across-the-board budget cut of 6.3 percent to keep the state from running out of money before June 30, the end of this biennium. Under state law, the governor can’t pick and choose where reductions take place, nor can she order extra cuts to leave the state with enough money to carry over into the next two-year budget cycle.
“Waiting until January or later to shore up the 2009-’11 budget will only make our fiscal situation worse and require more and deeper cuts,” Hewitt and DeBolt wrote. Bringing the parties’ budget experts in the House and Senate together with the governor’s staff and holding a quick special session is a “responsible, proactive approach,” they argued.
Brown said it’s too early to say whether they can reach an agreement that would make a special session worth calling a month before the regular session starts.
That special session would be a lame-duck session with some members who have been voted out of office as well as others who have announced their retirement.
Gregoire said she won’t call a special session without an agreement that can move quickly through the Legislature on ways to reduce the budget with something other than across-the-board cuts. By law, a special session lasts 30 days unless the Legislature agrees to shorten it.
“I’m not going to have the Legislature sit around for 30 days and not accomplish anything,” she said.
Supermajority for taxes unconstitutional, judge rules 
liarsinnews on November 07 at 5:45 a.m.
There has to be savings. Low life Chris Marr being sent down the road guarantees that his replacement, unlike Marr always asking for more money, will not ask to raise taxes. I wonder if the woman Marr paid $75,000.00 or more too, is standing by his side yet?
mikeln on November 07 at 6:19 a.m.
Lets cut the profit of big buisness doing work for the state. I know, this will cause layoffs as these people just can’t live without their profits and will maintain them at the cost to workers. Greed at it’s best.
MrDavis on November 07 at 7:06 a.m.
The message to Olympia is clear; the taxpayers are are on hard times, and unwilling to sacrifice further to protect the state bureaucracies. Why is our government convinced that it knows better how to spend our money, when we are losing our jobs, our homes and our standard of living? Why is our hardship subordinated to the needs of the state? Who is more entitled to allocate what little we have left?
hawken on November 07 at 7:07 a.m.
So, our beloved Democrat Governor refusses to call a special session to deal with the…
“$4.8 billion gap between projected revenues for the next two years and the amount the state would need to pay for all the programs, policies and personnel it currently has.”
The Republicans want to get to work…. The Democrat governor says no. Her reason:
“I’m not going to have the Legislature sit around for 30 days and not accomplish anything,”
Now there’s a defeatist attitude!
At best, our Democrat governor is being “penny wise” and “pound foolish.”
Or maybe, she wants to manipulate the budget crisis for political gain…. you know, right out of the Obama playbook.
“Never let a serious crisis go to waste…it’s an opportunity to do things you couldn’t do before.”
– Rohm Emanuel, Obama’s former chief of staff.
Clearly, she has no intent to seriously address our severe budget problems in a timely manner.
Whatever her reason, she is being irresponsible.
“It is thrifty to prepare today for the wants of tomorrow.”
Aesop
Scoutster on November 07 at 9:18 a.m.
What’s important to remember at this stage of the game, as the heavy lifting begins, is that you don’t want to make things worse by cutting in areas that will cause more expense elsewhere.
It’s a game of Whack a Mole.
But cutting non-union workers earning 9.00 (and the state has thousands of these subcontract workers) an hour doesn’t mean they disappear. Layoffs create new costs, notably unemployment at first, but then Medicaid when they can’t buy health insurance and foreclosure when they can’t pay their mortgage (or rent and the default goes to the landlord).
Hopefully with a more evenly balanced Leg there will be some smarter solutions.
It’s post-partisan now, people. It’s time to roll up the sleeves and stop sniping at every turn.
soccermomsusie on November 07 at 10:26 a.m.
Queen Christine better not try to cut any of the programs the state does for me and mine! She should just trim the fat! Fill the pot holes! Cut the bureaucrats and other things that we Tea Partiers have been offering as suggestions for years!!!
NO NEW TAXES!!!!
On another note, My prayers were halfway answered with John Ahern almost assured and for sure Mike Bumgardener beating Marr quite handily. But now the real work begins. And I have been asked to ask you for some help.
We have rented a moving van and we are starting a work party to move Mr. Bumgardener to Spokane. Is there anyone willing to pitch in and help us? Mr. Bumgardener moving his possessions here is a sure sign of his dedication to the region.
Thank you.
HEAR OUR VOICE!!!!
selkirks on November 07 at 11:25 a.m.
@hawken:
I’m sure that you were among those who argued when a Special Session earlier this year went on and on without any real solutions. The Governor’s right; we don’t want to see time being wasted.
misjustice on November 07 at 11:46 a.m.
@ selkirks; AND $$$$. Each day of a “special session” racks up the Benjamins. Let the legislators complete their work during the regular session.
Why should the tax payers foot the bill for a “special session”?
Bob_Knows on November 07 at 1:22 p.m.
Stop giving away OUR money to “undocumented” ILLEGAL aliens. That will fix Haywire’s budget. But don’t expect her to stop her handouts of OUR money to her illegal alien buddies. She never met a “colored” person she doesn’t favor over American workers.
Bob_Knows on November 07 at 1:23 p.m.
Give me 5 minutes with a red pen and Haywire’s budget and we would have a surplus. Of course all her illegal alien buddies would scream. Its time to protect American workers.
bubblegum61 on November 07 at 2:18 p.m.
Ask the governor and all of the elected officals how many mandatory furlough days they are taking? State workers are loosing a day a month but not one of our elected officals have stepped up to take any from what I have heard. We aren’t the ones that got our State in this mess. I feel that every State worker that includes all of them from the top to the bottom take a day a month and then maybe we could make some headway. I read in the paper where our governor is wanting to cut all these programs that help our elderly and our children but yet where does she step up? The ones that make the most money are the ones that never want to give any of it up when the going gets rough. They always want to take from the lowest paid workers and take from the most vunerable.
soccermomsusie on November 07 at 2:55 p.m.
Bob Knows, I join you when you say, “Stop giving away OUR money to “undocumented” ILLEGAL aliens. ”
The only thing worse is giving OUR money to “documented” ILLEGAL aliens, or of course, “undocumented” LEGAL aliens!
And leave it to the Demoncrat, Libertard, Stinkgressives to go “haywire” when they altogether stopped giving OUR money to “documented” LEGAL aliens. They can’t do nothing not unright!
HEAR OUR VOICE!!!!
zapster on November 07 at 5:15 p.m.
I know your editorial staff saw the “Top Salaries” list that the BIAW put out recently….the place to start cutting is with the MANY $700,000 salaries for instructors at the UW!!! Give us a break!!! I think you should publish that list, starting at the top of the feeding chain..say the top 25 salaries. People need to see it to believe it. (Then link to the rest of the list as BIAW did.) Then do top 25 salaries at our state’s largest three academic institutions as comparisons. Shocking when you also survey their benefits packages.
Scoutster on November 07 at 5:49 p.m.
OK, Cynthia…
And just how much will that give us?
ZagChuck on November 07 at 10:24 p.m.
We can trim most of the upper level and about ½ of the mid-level bureaucrats out of almost every department. Overall we need to reduce the size of government by about 1/3, and the cost of government by 40%.
Cynthia Zapotocky is right; higher education is a great place to start trimming the fat.
Then we can also look a K-12 Education. In Spokane County there are nearly 300 k-12 administrators making over $100k. That’s 600 teachers worth of pay not making it to the classroom in Spokane County alone. It’s not just about cutting the fat, it’s about making the right decisions with the money we spend.
In the DOT, we can start putting out competitive bids to construction companies, rather than paying 3 guys to work and 2 to supervise. I’m sure there’s a few hundred million dollars we could save right there.
We can also stop state funding public assistance of any kind for illegal aliens, including tuition assistance, and we can stop using tax dollars to fund abortions.
There are a number of places to trim; we might as well get to it. We can use New Jersey Governor Chris Christie as an example. He trimmed the fat without raising taxes to the tune of about 10 billion dollars for the 2010-11 budget. He did so as a republican governor with a democrat controlled house and senate.
The key is understanding that the days of reckless spending are OVER!!! Most of the Dems still don’t get it. Remarks from Gregoire and Obama make it clear they think they can “message: their way to political victory while destroying our economy.
selkirks on November 07 at 10:36 p.m.
@soccermomsusie:
You post on every article on the S-R’s website. And I’m still confused as to whether you’re trying to be satirical or not…
nslopeofw on November 07 at 11:09 p.m.
Rather than eliminate jobs, therefore adding to the welfare/unemployment/entitlement numbers, how about we spend less on legislative stuff. Cut all legislator pay by 20%. No more cars, cell phones, no conferences out of state, etc.
No more electives in schools. No more pro sport payoffs. No more worthless studies. No environmental considerations (until the economy gets better)
No more free health care or food programs. (make the recipients provide work at a fair market driven value for the services the receive)
The people have spoken, and they don’t want taxes or levies. They want responsible government spending. I don’t think that is something Gregoire can provide, but hopefully the other elected officials can.
Bob_Knows on November 08 at 9:52 a.m.
Most so-called “work” by government staff only amounts to shuffling useless paperwork back and forth to each other, or preparing useless forms that nobody cares about or reads. The government could eliminate 90% of their employees and the remaining workers could get the whole job done in about half days. Lots of their departments are doing “work” that harms more people and should be just eliminated. Give Bob a red pen and in 5 minutes the budget would have a huge surplus after a tax cut.
Blondscence on November 08 at 11:26 p.m.
mikeln is always after somebody else’s money! Cracks me up. He Mike throw all you money in the pot and talk to your friends!
Cut the free stuff
Giv mike and dick the red pens.
Cut the unions out and decertify them
Cut the Governor’s, Mayor’s and the legislator’s money by half.
And we’re home free. Wouldn’t help the liberals get votes and they’d get voted out by their bribee’s but so?