Delay no longer an option
Published 4:00 pm Monday, November 29, 2010
The state budget crisis has become so serious, the hole that must be filled so deep, that any response short of unmistakable urgency is inadequate.
The governor appears to get that. It’s unclear whether the legislative leadership does.
In a response to Gov. Chris Gregoire’s proposed cuts to the current budget, which has only seven months to go but is a whopping $385 million in the red, Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, seemed to argue for delaying difficult but inevitable decisions.
“Cuts will no doubt be necessary,” she blogged, “but I believe there are reforms we can make within government that can also achieve significant cost savings. We need to look at literally every opportunity to reduce the cost of delivering services before we eliminate services outright.”
We agree that any and all cost-saving reforms should be enacted, but it’s unrealistic to believe that after three years of major cuts throughout state government, enough such opportunities remain that can make the major, immediate difference that’s needed. We would amend the last sentence of Brown’s statement to read, “We need to look at literally every opportunity to reduce the cost of delivering services, and eliminate services outright.”
That means legislators must convene in December, well ahead of the start of the 2011 session, to make the hard choices required to balance the current budget. The sooner they’re enacted, the greater positive impact they’ll have on the larger task facing lawmakers in January: closing the $5.7 billion gap between planned spending and projected revenue in the next two-year budget.
Gregoire has put the difficult details on the table. Among other cuts, she has proposed eliminating the state’s Basic Health Program, which subsidizes coverage for workers whose income is just above the cut-off line for Medicaid; delaying need-based college grants; reducing state levy equalization for less-affluent school districts; and doing away with the Disability Lifeline program, which helps people who are temporarily unemployable due to a disability.
After three years of falling revenue forecasts and putting off tough choices, the Legislature has run out of options. If lawmakers balk at a December special session, Gregoire should force the issue and call one anyway. The job ahead is foreboding, but delaying will only make it more so.
Efforts to streamline government services, to shift them to the private sector when they can be delivered as or more cost-effectively, and to root out waste and fraud should be a given. They mustn’t become an excuse for delaying the hardest choices.
