It's time for creative, critical thinking on state budget

The following editorial was published on Sept. 19, 2010.

Sigh. This state has a multibillion-dollar budget deficit. We've seen this before. We've seen the response to this before. It's not working.

The state's revenue forecast released Thursday sees an additional $1.4 billion decrease in tax collections through June 2013.

Gov. Chris Gregoire, anticipating the news before she headed to Asia on a trade mission, signed an executive order directing 6 percent cuts to state programs across the board. The cuts, which will take effect at the beginning of next month, are projected to save $520 million in the current biennium.

Alas, it won't be enough. The next two-year budget, starting in 2011, is facing a shortfall of $3.3 billion to $4.5 billion. And all this is before voters most likely will approve ballot measures rescinding a sales tax on items like candy and soda pop, requiring a two-thirds vote for tax increases and possibly getting the state out of the liquor business (and heavy taxation therein). Voters may approve a state high-earner income tax, but don't bet your 401(k) on that. Federal money has eased some of the cuts, but don't bet whatever 401(k) interest you've earned this year on a repeat of that, either. Already, the Legislature has whacked funding for public schools and services for the poor.

As Marty Brown, the governor's budget director, said Thursday, "It's going to be ugly." It already is.

Yakima Valley Community College and Central Washington University, again, will feel the impact. Initial cuts mean a loss of $1.13 million for YVCC and more than $2 million for Central. Expect more cuts in other state agencies that serve the Yakima Valley.

As we said, we've seen this before. And the budget forecasts have seen it coming. Mainly, the approach by the Democratic governor and the Democrat-controlled Legislature has been to wait for the economy to pull out of the Great Recession and hope the problem goes away. Neither has happened, and the Democrats' piecemeal cuts -- an effort to minimize the fallout on the party's labor and state-worker constituencies -- have proven woefully inadequate.

The Republicans are calling for a special session, which won't happen in the weeks preceding an election. Even with a special session, proposals for targeted cuts, sought by Republicans like state Sen. Curtis King of Yakima, would quickly get tossed aside by ruling Democrats.

Our state budget model is broken. It needs to be dismantled and rebuilt, or at least undergo a serious overhaul.

Gregoire is aware of this and over the summer solicited comments online and at meetings about how to make the tough budget decisions. Some of those have been posted online. She has responded to those ideas, some of which have more merit than others. She also appointed a committee of about three dozen officials from business, government and labor, across the political spectrum, to help come up with ideas that will reflect concerns of the political class.

It's all well and good, but this will require a mix of creative yet critical thinking. People will have to let go of their agendas, their sacred cows, their turf. It surely will involve a hard look at benefits to state employees, and perhaps which state agencies should even exist.

At the same time, it will require acknowledging that the state is best able to provide essential services. And it can't end with a thick report that gets filed away. It will require our elected officials to take a tough vote. People of all political persuasions are going to have to give a little bit.

It's a dirty job, but the governor and legislators are the ones who asked to do it. If the current system isn't doing its job, then our elected officials are going to have to do theirs and fix it.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are James E. Stickel, Bob Crider, Frank Purdy and Karen Troianello.