Tax hikes should be a last resort

We agree with Gov. Chris Gregoire’s assessment of her proposed supplemental budget: It stinks.

What we don’t agree on is her insistence that the only other option is to come up with tax increases. The governor argues she would use this new revenue to prevent severe cuts to public education and to services for low-income families and those with disabilities.

Not so fast, governor.

Any tax boost must be viewed as a last resort and should only be considered when all other avenues of savings have been thoroughly exhausted. From our viewpoint, that hasn’t happened.

What about opening up the state’s collective bargaining agreements and taking a look at suggesting unpaid furloughs and re-negotiating projected wage increases for state employees? That’s just one area lawmakers should explore before embracing the prospect of tax hikes.

Without question, the governor faced a tough task in trying to make up for a predicted $2.6 billion shortfall in 2010.

Under the no-new-taxes budget she released Wednesday, the state’s Basic Health Plan would be eliminated. The nationally recognized program provides coverage to more than 65,000 working people who are unable to find or afford private insurance. This would have a devastating effect in Central Washington with its large number of farm workers and retail employees who rely on the plan for their health coverage.

School districts in the region would also suffer if levy equalization funds are wiped out, as they would be under Gregoire’s budget. These funds help districts with low property assessments make up the difference and reach equal footing with property-rich districts like Mercer Island.

Each school district in Yakima County receives these additional funds. The total figure for the county is staggering — about $40 million, or 36 percent of the $110 million the state anticipates sending out next year.

The governor promised she would use funds from any new taxes she’ll propose next month to offset her proposed cutbacks to the state’s health plan and the levy-equalization funds.

However, at least two areas the governor would not protect from the budget ax are higher education and the Ahtanum View Corrections Center in Yakima.

Gregoire predicts cuts of $89.5 million to colleges and universities, though she promises to protect financial aid to college students if new revenue sources are found.

There’s little doubt, though, about the corrections center. The governor doesn’t even require approval from lawmakers to close down the 12-year-old minimum security prison, which provides shelter to medically fragile and disabled offenders who have trouble in a typical prison setting.

By closing Ahtanum View, as she promised earlier this year, the governor expects the state will save more than $7 million in operation costs.

We doubt the governor will realize these kinds of savings by closing Ahtanum View, but any hope of saving the facility evaporated when revenue predictions kept dropping this summer as the nation, and the state, suffered through the worst recession since the 1930s.

While Democrats enjoy strong majorities in both legislative chambers as well as control of the governor’s mansion, we urge lawmakers to be cautious when heading into January’s session.

Tax increases may seem irresistible at first blush. That doesn’t mean they are inevitable or proper.


• Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Bob Crider, Spencer Hatton and Karen Troianello.