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State government, like everyone else, must bite the bullet
Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board
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This editorial appears in the Nov. 22, 2009, Yakima Herald-Republic.
The grim news just got grimmer for the state's budget.
November forecasts predict revenue for the state will drop another $760 million by the end of the biennium on June 30, 2011. That means the governor and lawmakers must deal with an additional $2.6 billion shortfall in the two-year budget. Legislators already wrestled with a $9 billion shortfall earlier in the year.
Add the two figures together and the result is $11.6 billion.
"That's almost a third of our last budget," Gov. Chris Gregoire said Thursday. "We have not seen a shortfall like this in 80 years."
Since 2007, the state revenue picture has shown steady declines. That has led to nine straight economic forecasts pointing to deficits.
Washington has lots of company. There are 47 other states confronting similar budget woes.
Despite improving conditions for the national and state economies, consumer spending continues to be anemic and is the main culprit in the worse-than-expected revenue forecasts.
While Republican leadership has asked for a special session in December to deal with this severe shortfall, Gregoire has resisted such requests. She said a special session could prove costly and unproductive.
During the summer, the governor clamped down on state spending, telling agencies to put a cap on hiring, trim employee costs by 2 percent from budgeted amounts and cut back on out-of-state travel and personal services contracts.
The governor knows the upcoming session in January will be brutal.
"All options must be on the table to produce a budget that works," Gregoire said in a statement released Thursday.
When the words "all options" are tossed around, the natural response is "up to and including tax increases." We trust that any attempt to enact tax hikes will be quashed early in the session. This state's economy, as evidenced by the spiraling down of sales-tax revenues, is not heading in the right direction. Any tax hike would further weaken consumer spending. That's a prospect nobody wants to see.
What faces lawmakers is another round of spending cuts. This time, across-the-board cutbacks won't bring about the desired results. Entire programs must come under review and be eliminated or mothballed if they prove to be too costly or ineffective.
Compelling state workers to take unpaid furloughs or other wage-and-benefit trimming should also be discussed. It's happening in the private sector; there's no reason it shouldn't occur in the public arena as well.
Tough times require tough measures. Refusing to raise taxes is part of that process. It doesn't make the task at hand any easier, but it does keep lawmakers focused on the correct side of the balance sheet: expenses.
* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Bob Crider, Spencer Hatton and Karen Troianello.
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