Published: Sunday, November 6, 2011
To get the state out of the red, both parties must compromise
It's easy to see the common themes of frustration and anger in the Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party movements. People are upset with a dysfunctional political system, characterized by extreme partisanship and political gridlock.
Most Americans don't have the opportunity to rally or protest. They are busy trying to hold down one or more jobs, balancing their own budgets and driving their children to soccer practice. Poll after poll affirms, however, that a majority of Americans are frustrated with the country's direction and believe that cooperation and compromise are necessary to get us back on track.
Reduce, reform and revenue
The political parties organize around opposing sound bites, like "no new taxes" or "raise new revenue." In truth, government is complicated; there are valid points of view from the left and right. We think most citizens understand that it will take three things -- spending reductions, reforms and new revenue -- to get Washington state back on a sustainable track.
It's time for our political parties' leadership to speak plainly to even the most ardent of each party's base. To continue to allege that any single action -- whether reductions, reforms or revenue -- will do the trick is just wrong. We must do all three. The sloganeering needs to stop now.
Moderate Democrats in Olympia have political values as strongly held as our more partisan colleagues, and all of us are committed to following facts and analysis wherever they lead. What sets us slightly apart, however, is the makeup of our districts. We have major constituencies that represent many points on the political spectrum. We have to balance factors beyond our parties' agendas.
To be true to our districts, we can't view government as a zero-sum game; we must engage in fact-based arguments and analysis, cooperating and compromising among interests.
In the last three budgets, the Legislature cut approximately $10 billion in state spending, closed some tax exemptions and instituted several reform measures that save taxpayers money and ease the pressure on small business. We prided ourselves for bending the cost curve slightly downward. While many were relieved at each adjournment, many of us knew that the reprieve was temporary. To get to a sustainable budget, we must continue to drive that cost curve downward.
So now, we're faced with an additional shortfall of over $2 billion.
Reductions come first
The governor's announcement of her suggested cuts illustrates the impact of an all-cuts budget, and even then, she stops short of cutting the entire amount needed.
We are constitutionally required to balance our budget, so the reductions are not optional at this point. The cuts hit educational support and safety-net programs particularly hard, because so much of the budget is considered off limits, a characterization that we believe needs to be challenged.
In the meantime, to balance the budget with cuts, more programs would have to go on the chopping block, while attempting to protect the most critical services.
Next: reform, restructure and redesign
These critical services can't be saved just by new revenue. We have to tackle some of the long-delayed reform and redesign issues to get the costs of these programs down to sustainable levels. If we don't get the cost curves trending in the right direction, any new budget we approve will be almost immediately unsustainable. That's called kicking the can down the road.
We have to look harder at outsourcing, of course, but with care. For example, when a robust private market already exists for a service, like printing and copying, the state printing department becomes a good candidate for elimination. Conversely, some services do not lend themselves to the private sector; those are the ones we have to redesign or reform.
We must take another stab at regulatory reform, because regulations don't impact just business but also cities, counties, school districts and social service providers. We'll have to take care, for instance, to maintain rules that ensure clean air and water and a healthy ecosystem, but we can eliminate arbitrary dates for updating codes and multiple reporting requirements.
Then, and only then, revenue
Reductions, reforms and redesigns are important not just to sustainability but also to regaining the public trust in government. But many of them will take time to implement, and in the meantime our children need an education, workers need retraining and the disabled and elderly need services.
So while we launch reforms, we know that we have to talk about new revenue. Various ideas -- a transportation package providing jobs now, a temporary sales tax or closing tax exemptions tied to education and human services, for example -- will need vetting for cost, impact and benefits. We must try to work with the business community on revenue ideas so that opposition will be minimized against a referendum.
For any of these proposals to be accepted by the public, the reform work must be more than window-dressing; it must be significant, credible and assured. Without acceptance from the public, revenue options will be defeated at the ballot box.
Collaboration and compromise
Last session, a truly bipartisan budget emanated from the Senate, along with needed reforms, moving our state in a positive direction. This was largely due to the fact that in the Senate, both the Democratic and Republican leadership were willing to be pragmatic, working together to meet the challenges of a huge budget shortfall and a horrible recession. Unfortunately, global economic problems and a slow job recovery here at home will put additional stress on us for the next several years, and that cooperation and collaboration must be repeated and expanded.
Some blame too much spending; some blame insufficient revenue. In fact, this isn't an either/or choice. It's both. If we are to see a return of public trust in government, we have to quit alleging that it's one or the other and admit the obvious: it's both.
To get the job done, we must continue to challenge the cultural status quo in Olympia, working to move beyond the partisan team blueprint. That model won't work. This year, we encourage our fellow legislators of both parties in all caucuses to stay open to all ideas and to seek out cooperation and compromise across the aisle, without apology.
We owe the public no less.
State Sen. Steve Hobbs represents the 44th District and lives in Lake Stevens. State Rep. Deb Eddy represents the 48th District and lives in Kirkland. Both are Democrats.
Contact them at steve.hobbs@leg.wa.gov or deb.eddy@leg.wa.gov.
Most Americans don't have the opportunity to rally or protest. They are busy trying to hold down one or more jobs, balancing their own budgets and driving their children to soccer practice. Poll after poll affirms, however, that a majority of Americans are frustrated with the country's direction and believe that cooperation and compromise are necessary to get us back on track.
Reduce, reform and revenue
The political parties organize around opposing sound bites, like "no new taxes" or "raise new revenue." In truth, government is complicated; there are valid points of view from the left and right. We think most citizens understand that it will take three things -- spending reductions, reforms and new revenue -- to get Washington state back on a sustainable track.
It's time for our political parties' leadership to speak plainly to even the most ardent of each party's base. To continue to allege that any single action -- whether reductions, reforms or revenue -- will do the trick is just wrong. We must do all three. The sloganeering needs to stop now.
Moderate Democrats in Olympia have political values as strongly held as our more partisan colleagues, and all of us are committed to following facts and analysis wherever they lead. What sets us slightly apart, however, is the makeup of our districts. We have major constituencies that represent many points on the political spectrum. We have to balance factors beyond our parties' agendas.
To be true to our districts, we can't view government as a zero-sum game; we must engage in fact-based arguments and analysis, cooperating and compromising among interests.
In the last three budgets, the Legislature cut approximately $10 billion in state spending, closed some tax exemptions and instituted several reform measures that save taxpayers money and ease the pressure on small business. We prided ourselves for bending the cost curve slightly downward. While many were relieved at each adjournment, many of us knew that the reprieve was temporary. To get to a sustainable budget, we must continue to drive that cost curve downward.
So now, we're faced with an additional shortfall of over $2 billion.
Reductions come first
The governor's announcement of her suggested cuts illustrates the impact of an all-cuts budget, and even then, she stops short of cutting the entire amount needed.
We are constitutionally required to balance our budget, so the reductions are not optional at this point. The cuts hit educational support and safety-net programs particularly hard, because so much of the budget is considered off limits, a characterization that we believe needs to be challenged.
In the meantime, to balance the budget with cuts, more programs would have to go on the chopping block, while attempting to protect the most critical services.
Next: reform, restructure and redesign
These critical services can't be saved just by new revenue. We have to tackle some of the long-delayed reform and redesign issues to get the costs of these programs down to sustainable levels. If we don't get the cost curves trending in the right direction, any new budget we approve will be almost immediately unsustainable. That's called kicking the can down the road.
We have to look harder at outsourcing, of course, but with care. For example, when a robust private market already exists for a service, like printing and copying, the state printing department becomes a good candidate for elimination. Conversely, some services do not lend themselves to the private sector; those are the ones we have to redesign or reform.
We must take another stab at regulatory reform, because regulations don't impact just business but also cities, counties, school districts and social service providers. We'll have to take care, for instance, to maintain rules that ensure clean air and water and a healthy ecosystem, but we can eliminate arbitrary dates for updating codes and multiple reporting requirements.
Then, and only then, revenue
Reductions, reforms and redesigns are important not just to sustainability but also to regaining the public trust in government. But many of them will take time to implement, and in the meantime our children need an education, workers need retraining and the disabled and elderly need services.
So while we launch reforms, we know that we have to talk about new revenue. Various ideas -- a transportation package providing jobs now, a temporary sales tax or closing tax exemptions tied to education and human services, for example -- will need vetting for cost, impact and benefits. We must try to work with the business community on revenue ideas so that opposition will be minimized against a referendum.
For any of these proposals to be accepted by the public, the reform work must be more than window-dressing; it must be significant, credible and assured. Without acceptance from the public, revenue options will be defeated at the ballot box.
Collaboration and compromise
Last session, a truly bipartisan budget emanated from the Senate, along with needed reforms, moving our state in a positive direction. This was largely due to the fact that in the Senate, both the Democratic and Republican leadership were willing to be pragmatic, working together to meet the challenges of a huge budget shortfall and a horrible recession. Unfortunately, global economic problems and a slow job recovery here at home will put additional stress on us for the next several years, and that cooperation and collaboration must be repeated and expanded.
Some blame too much spending; some blame insufficient revenue. In fact, this isn't an either/or choice. It's both. If we are to see a return of public trust in government, we have to quit alleging that it's one or the other and admit the obvious: it's both.
To get the job done, we must continue to challenge the cultural status quo in Olympia, working to move beyond the partisan team blueprint. That model won't work. This year, we encourage our fellow legislators of both parties in all caucuses to stay open to all ideas and to seek out cooperation and compromise across the aisle, without apology.
We owe the public no less.
State Sen. Steve Hobbs represents the 44th District and lives in Lake Stevens. State Rep. Deb Eddy represents the 48th District and lives in Kirkland. Both are Democrats.
Contact them at steve.hobbs@leg.wa.gov or deb.eddy@leg.wa.gov.
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