Washington: A Balanced Budget Is No Longer Enough

 

Updated Jan. 11, 2012

A Seattle Times headline is perplexing. True, the headline –“Lawmakers open session, try to close $1B gap” – is a fairly accurate assessment of Washington state’s budget. Not to be laboriously repetitive, but the headline is worrisome. Once again the Legislature faces a budget crisis.

“The economy is the focal point of this year’s legislature as state lawmakers attempt to close a $1.5 billion shortfall in a $34 billion budget at the state capitol in Olympia,” blogged Don Brunell, president of the Association of Washington Business (AWB).

Mr. Brunell is known for his pragmatic reasoning.

“As they deliberate, they must be mindful that Washington is in the midst of an anemic economic recovery which is very fragile,” the AWB president added. “New costs to employers, especially those along Main Street, have a dampening effect on our ability to increase consumer confidence and bring people back to work.”

That’s my sense, too. But the Legislature routinely fails to prioritize first things first. The short-term priority is to balance the 2011-2013 budget. But as a priority, it’s secondary to a bigger quandary – government and budgeting reform, which are needed immediately, as well.

Instead, all budget discussions are about the short-term and relatively insignificant issues grab a disproportionate amount of attention.

Gov. Gregoire wants to focus on a new $3.6 billion transportation package, gay marriage, shorten the school year, abolish social services, release some prisoners before the sentences expire, and increase the state’s sales tax. House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, also says same-sex marriage is a top priority.

A significant number of citizens wants to legalize marijuana. Some lawmakers want a statewide ban on plastic grocery bags.

Most of us in business agree education is a priority. But increasing taxes even for education isn’t productive as long as government/budgeting reform is ignored as a priority.

In addition to Mr. Brunell, another thoughtful pragmatist is Jason Mercier. Mr. Mercier is director of the Center for Government Reform of the Washington Policy Center.

Worth consideration is Mr. Mercier’s list of recommended reforms:

• Enact a constitutional tax and spending limit (with two-thirds requirement to raise taxes) modeled after the original 1993 I-601 formula.

• Remove as many of the restrictions on lawmakers’ ability to set spending priorities as possible (collective bargaining restrictions on compensation, federal mandates, assumption of auto-pilot budgeting on programs).

• Reform competitive contracting. Allow agencies to make performance-based contracting more proactive (create a Competitive Contracting Council).

• Provide the governor discretionary authority to cut spending.

• Repeal unaffordable programs instead of suspending them.

• Require at least a 5 percent reserve when adopting the next biennial budget.

• Require updated four-year budget outlooks to be published after each state revenue forecast or budget adoption.

• Require completed fiscal notes before bills can be acted on.

• Phase in a defined-contribution retirement plan that gives state workers benefits that can never be taken away.

Amen. Yes, the Legislature should soberly balance the budget. However, unless the Legislature concomitantly reforms government and the budgeting process, uncertainty will never be alleviated for the state’s businesses and consumers.

From the Coach’s Corner, you might want to consider other public policy columns.

“There is an important sense in which government is distinctive from administration. One is perpetual, the other is temporary and changeable. A man may be loyal to his government and yet oppose the particular principles and methods of administration.”

-Abraham Lincoln

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Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?

How to Alleviate Business Uncertainty in Washington State

 

July 25, 2010

Washington state is comparatively healthy. But don’t tell that to most employers. They won’t buy it. Washington state has lost more jobs, 16,000, in the past year than 41 other states.

Unemployment rates are a huge drag holding back economic development. There are many reasons why job creation is sputtering.

Actually, it’s symptomatic and related to many economic problems. The overall common denominator is uncertainty – from declining sales revenue, threats of a double-dip recession, tax increases, and unproductive public policies.

Yes, Washington faces another $3 billion shortfall.

A July Op Ed piece in the Seattle Times by State Auditor Brian Sonntag made an excellent case for decreasing the size of state government and improving its inefficient budgeting process.

“We need to resize government’s footprint to reflect what it can and should do, balanced with what it can afford to do,” Mr. Sonntag wrote. “We will not get there unless we stop, now, the petty partisan bickering that erodes citizens’ trust in government and inhibits meaningful solutions to our greatest challenges.”

A frequent complaint on this site is the mega unfunded public pensions. Mr. Sonntag points out Washington state public pensions are skyrocketing and $8 billion is unfunded.

“Our work at the Office of State Auditor uniquely positions us to understand the state’s broad financial condition,” Mr. Sonntag explained. “For example, we know even in good economic times as well as bad, the state has not systematically funded all its long-term financial obligations.”

It’s not just the unfunded aspects of pensions, which I contend are too generous vis-à-vis the retirement plans available in the private sector.

Mr. Sonntag cited a related example: “A $4 billion liability in the health-and life-insurance benefits paid to retired public employees without any accumulation of revenue to pay for it.”

Political “courage” and “leadership” is needed, he wrote.

“It is time to end the current era of political polarization and extreme partisanship. We must transform government together,” he asserted. “We must put aside the premise of ‘I’m right, you’re wrong.’ We must do what is right instead of doing what makes the other side look bad.”

His points are astute and accurate. The tendency, as it is at the national level, is to focus on personalities and not principles. It’s time to stop shooting the messenger instead of the message, and to be honest in campaigns.

For example, it took legal action by the Association of Washington to clean up the ballot title for Referendum 52. To win passage of $505 million in bonds for energy-saving school construction projects, the wording would have tricked voters into extending the new tax on bottled water. A Thurston County judge ruled that the phrase, “job creation,” was disingenuous and removed it from the ballot title.

Alleviating uncertainty

Voters have an opportunity to start implementing solutions this fall. The most salient is transparency and voter protection against disingenuous taxation. In essence, Initiative 1053 will again require a two-thirds majority on any legislative tax increase, and approval by voters.

I-1053 must be passed. Plus, voters have to make it clear to lawmakers that they will not put up with any more games.

Three times voters have passed this protection, and each time the Legislature has circumvented it.

Initiative 1082 deserves voter approval. It would pave the way for private insurers in Washington state workers’ compensation.

Liquor sale privatization is important, too, in I-1100. It would end the state’s monopoly on liquor sales and put it in the hands of the private sector. That includes the 1,500 state-liquor employees.

The class warfare implications of I-1098 are troubling. That’s the income tax on the affluent. A similar 2010 measure in Oregon has failed to help that state’s economy.

Another opportunity to alleviate uncertainty is to comment at two remaining events: The Governor’s Committee on transforming Washington’s Budget. So far, only the special interests advocating the status quo are showing up to comment.

The final two hearings:

• July 27, 7-9 p.m. in Vancouver – Washington State University-Vancouver, Administration Building Room 110, 14204 NE Salmon Creek Avenue.
• July 29, 7-9 p.m. in Spokane  – Spokane City Hall, City Council Chambers, 808 W. Spokane Falls Boulevard.

Will you participate.

Meantime, productive public policy will do a lot to alleviate concerns about business uncertainty, and will make it easier for businesspeople to solve their declining sales revenue.

From the Coach’s Corner, admittedly, I haven’t budgeted the time to review the dozens of initiatives on the November ballot, but have read a few others.

For some levity, here are two extreme initiatives:

• I-1079 – “This measure states that it is an act to require state and governmental agencies, publicly owned companies, and non profit groups to pay all mandatory overtime at the rate of three times the employees’ hourly rate.”
• I-1069 – “This measure would require the Seal of the State of Washington to be changed to depict a vignette of a tapeworm dressed in a three piece suit attached to the lower intestine of a taxpayer shown as the central figure. The seal would be required to be encircled with the following words: ‘Committed to sucking the life blood out of each and every tax payer.’ The illustration would be selected from submissions submitted by taxpayers.”

And to see more than 50 other public-policy columns, visit this section.