Published: Friday, October 28, 2011
In our view / State budget choices
Bad, worse and unthinkable
Having cut $10.5 billion in state spending over just the last three years, there was no doubt that lopping another $2 billion or so would be painful. Yet it was hard to avoid a sense of shock Thursday when Gov. Chris Gregoire outlined the stark choices legislators will face to align the budget with plummeting revenue.
The picture is heartbreaking, frustrating, and leaves one to conclude that we've passed the point of diminishing returns in cuts to education, corrections and many human services. Short term reductions appear now to be eating into our future prosperity.
Gregoire offered a long list of options for cuts, following exhaustive work by her budget staff and agencies in response to September's bleak revenue forecast. It wasn't an actual budget proposal -- that will come next month before the Legislature convenes Nov. 28 for what figures to be an agonizing special session. The governor did, however, reveal many of her preferred alternatives, which would reduce spending by about $1.7 billion through June 2013, and move $330 million into the next two-year budget.
Among the grim suggestions:
•Reducing already devastated support for higher education by another 15 percent.
•Increasing class sizes by two students in grades 4-12.
•Reducing levy equalization payments to property-poor districts, including several in Snohomish County.
•Eliminating the Disability Lifeline medical assistance program.
•Doing away with the sharing of liquor profits and taxes with local governments. (Voter approval of Initiative 1183, which would privatize liquor sales and distribution, would more than negate such cuts by providing new state and local revenue streams.)
•Releasing some prisoners early, and cutting back on community supervision.
Talk of tax increases, and eliminating some tax exemptions, is already prominent. It's also premature. Any such move will almost certainly require voter approval, and the earliest it could have an effect would be next summer. The budget hole needs to be filled before then, meaning lawmakers must go through the painful process of cutting another $2 billion -- and perhaps more, depending on November's revenue update.
Taxes aren't necessarily a foolproof solution. The biggest key to solving the immediate budget problem is a healthy economy, where jobs are being created and consumers are spending. Taxes that put a significant damper on either could prove counterproductive.
But further deep cuts to higher ed, rural school districts, corrections, and human services that prevent higher costs down the road are counterproductive, too. New revenue will have to be considered.
If it's not accompanied by meaningful budget reforms that minimize the chance of further shortfalls, though, good luck getting it past skeptical, recession-battered voters.
The picture is heartbreaking, frustrating, and leaves one to conclude that we've passed the point of diminishing returns in cuts to education, corrections and many human services. Short term reductions appear now to be eating into our future prosperity.
Gregoire offered a long list of options for cuts, following exhaustive work by her budget staff and agencies in response to September's bleak revenue forecast. It wasn't an actual budget proposal -- that will come next month before the Legislature convenes Nov. 28 for what figures to be an agonizing special session. The governor did, however, reveal many of her preferred alternatives, which would reduce spending by about $1.7 billion through June 2013, and move $330 million into the next two-year budget.
Among the grim suggestions:
•Reducing already devastated support for higher education by another 15 percent.
•Increasing class sizes by two students in grades 4-12.
•Reducing levy equalization payments to property-poor districts, including several in Snohomish County.
•Eliminating the Disability Lifeline medical assistance program.
•Doing away with the sharing of liquor profits and taxes with local governments. (Voter approval of Initiative 1183, which would privatize liquor sales and distribution, would more than negate such cuts by providing new state and local revenue streams.)
•Releasing some prisoners early, and cutting back on community supervision.
Talk of tax increases, and eliminating some tax exemptions, is already prominent. It's also premature. Any such move will almost certainly require voter approval, and the earliest it could have an effect would be next summer. The budget hole needs to be filled before then, meaning lawmakers must go through the painful process of cutting another $2 billion -- and perhaps more, depending on November's revenue update.
Taxes aren't necessarily a foolproof solution. The biggest key to solving the immediate budget problem is a healthy economy, where jobs are being created and consumers are spending. Taxes that put a significant damper on either could prove counterproductive.
But further deep cuts to higher ed, rural school districts, corrections, and human services that prevent higher costs down the road are counterproductive, too. New revenue will have to be considered.
If it's not accompanied by meaningful budget reforms that minimize the chance of further shortfalls, though, good luck getting it past skeptical, recession-battered voters.
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