April 21, 2009

The Washington Monument Strategy

If you have been paying attention to Washington State politics, I’m sure you have all heard about the impending “budget crisis” the state is facing. The most recent estimates put us in a $9 billion hole.

Would you be surprised if I told you the Washington State government has more money now than last year? Here are some facts that the Democrats in Olympia do not want you to know. If we compare the last biennium budget to the current biennium budget, we actually have more money coming into our state coffers. In fact, if projections are accurate, the State of Washington will bring in about 2% more revenue in the 2009-2011 biennium than we did in the 2007-2009 biennium.

So. If we are bringing in more money, how do we have a $9 billion shortfall? The answer is spending. Since 2004, Gov. Gregiore and the Democratic Legislature have increased spending by $8 billion or approximately 24%. During the heyday of the housing boom our revenues were increasing fast and the Governor made budget promises assuming that huge increases in revenue would continue forever. Of course everyone knows that never happens, and sure enough it did not happen in Washington. If we had simply maintained our 2006 spending level, we wouldn’t have a budget deficit. To go a step further, if we had maintained our 2006 spending levels and taken the Obama stimulus package money of $4 billion, we would actually have a $3 billion surplus!

But the past is the past and we can’t do anything about those bad decisions. Now we have to look to the future and ask, how are we going to fill this $9 billion hole? Unfortunately, I already know the answer to that question. Get ready for the “Washington Monument Strategy,” an old trick developed by clever bureaucrats to wring more money out of taxpayers.

The name comes from a strategy developed by the National Parks Service to insulate itself from any budget cuts. Many years ago, when Congress was actually trying to control costs, they cut the National Parks Service budget. Congress believed that the Park Service would respond by shutting down some seldom used campgrounds or cutting back in rarely visited attractions. They were wrong. The National Park service did the exact opposite. They left all the unused attractions open and shut down the Washington Monument. This resulted in an outcry from the public and a demand that all funds be restored to the Park Service. It worked.

Your Washington Legislature is going to adopt the same strategy. Given that they are $9 billion short, they are not going to cut obscure programs. They are not going to cut pet projects and pork barrel projects. They are not going to cut the bureaucracy. What they are going to do is cut all the popular programs. They will threaten to cut K-12 education spending. The will threaten to cut funding for our colleges, important transportation projects that relieve traffic, and maybe shut down popular state parks.

Then they are going to offer you the voters a chance to “buy back” the cut programs by putting a massive tax increase on the ballot for you to approve. You will be told that the tax increase will go to pay for schools, education, and vital programs. In all real sense, that will be a lie. There is plenty of money to pay for those programs already. They need the additional $9 billion in taxes to pay for their pet projects and unpopular programs. Mostly they need the money to pay back the state employee unions who got them elected in the first place.

Let’s be smart. Let’s not give into this type of political extortion. When that tax increase initiative comes up on the ballot in November or August, let’s tell our liberal friends in Olympia that enough is enough and they will have to make due with the $37 billion they already have!