Some ‘Budget writing for dummies’ advice for lawmakers

Two sessions of the Legislature and still no approved budget. What a waste of taxpayers’ money. Maybe our Legislature should solve the budget problem like families do that have to live on a fixed income.

1. List all items that our state Constitution requires the Legislature to fund.

2. Prioritize all other expenditures, which are nice but not required by the Constitution.

3. Eliminate all unfunded federal mandates from the priority list.

4. From the estimated state income, budget the items in Item 1.

5. With the remaining funds, start funding the “nice to do” items based on the priority list developed in Item 2. This priority list could be developed by having each legislator prepare a priority list and from these lists, each item could be ranked.

If this doesn’t work, maybe we need a constitution amendment that would require the Legislature to pass a budget before any other measure could be considered for enactment.

Jack E. Sceva

Stanwood