WASHINGTON STATE BUDGET & POLICY CENTER
When the Washington State Supreme Court handed down its historic McCleary decision, ruling that the state had failed to meet its constitutional “paramount duty” to provide for the ample funding of our public schools, Democrats cheered at the opportunity. The court ordered the state to add billions more to K-12 spending. Finally we would reverse decades of foolish disinvestment. Hooray!
Except, it’s beginning to look like Republicans and their drown-government-in-a-bathtub agenda are going to end up the big winners.
The indisputable mathematical truth is that we simply cannot meet McCleary and maintain existing government services at constant levels, without raising new revenue. It can’t be done! And anybody who tells you otherwise is either a liar or an idiot. Washington state has a structural revenue deficit. There is absolutely no way we can magically fund McCleary through economic growth alone. The math doesn’t work. Which means there is no way the state doesn’t eventually find itself in contempt of court.
It is going to happen. It is inevitable. Barring a farfetched pro-tax Democratic sweep in this November’s legislative elections, the state will not meet the McCleary mandate.
So how will the court react? Legislators enjoy immunity, so the court can’t throw them in jail on contempt charges, as much as they might deserve it. And the court lacks the authority to levy taxes itself. So the only remedy really available to the justices would be to order drastic across-the-board cuts in discretionary spending in order to repurpose those funds to our public schools.
Which is exactly what the Republicans want!
The Republicans correctly view McCleary as an unparalleled opportunity to defund the rest of state government in the disingenuous name of educating our children. But as the Washington State Budget & Policy Center correctly observes, such a policy would force “devastating cuts to health care, public safety, child care, and other important investments kids need in order to succeed in the classroom.” It would be a total fucking disaster.
But the alternative—doing nothing—would be a disaster too. For if the Supreme Court is proven toothless in the face of legislative insubordination, then the system of checks and balances inherent within our constitution would be forever broken.
Washington State is headed toward a constitutional crisis. There is no avoiding it. And Democrats better start preparing themselves to handle this McCleary crisis a helluva lot better than they handled the McCleary opportunity.
More and more, I find republicans to be Evil(TM). They will never do the right thing, if it costs their masters money.
Many smaller state agencies are funded through user fees, license revenue, and the like. For example, the state gambling commission’s budget comes from fees paid by the gambling industry. If you add up all the General Fund appropriations to small agencies, it doesn’t amount to much. Unless you raid WSDOT’s dedicated transportation taxes, there’s really only two big budgets you can “repurpose” — Corrections and DSHS. So I have a proposal. When budget realities force DOC to close prisons and release criminals, let’s take them all the eastern Washington and dump them there. Don’t give them gate money or food stamps; those budgets will have to be eliminated, too. Let them scrounge for food in the fields, or by breaking into farmhouses.
Washington: The Worst “Blue” State In America (TM)
The people of this state have had ample opportunity to vote in favor of a state income tax — but they’re too stupid to do it — so they’ll get what they deserve.
@1 That’s Republican politicians and lobbyists you’re talking about. Republican voters (and trolls) will never do the right thing, even if it’s counter to their own interestes. If the talking heads on Fox tell them to cut off their own legs and eat them, they’ll eagerly do so.
But as any Conservative will tell you, Education for anything other than how to make money or operate machinery so other people can make money from that, is communism.
Seattleshrew: If, Washington is the worst “Blue” state in America then leave :)
@3 That could be taken as a compliment.
It is time to make the RETHUG counties pay their own way.
King county funds the rest of the state 2 billion a year. We have enough to fund our needs if we keep that tax money here.
King County prolly uses the most natural resources of the state. Does King County pay the most in environmental impact fees due to libtards driving and polluting the environment or are those costs spread over the whole state?
Got proof OWS Racist Fraggy? You know someone in King County or WA State guvmint who has publicly espoused those thoughts?
Come on prove it!
Hey GOATSEBOY!!!
You got proof you’re not the SPAWN OF SATAN?
@10. Cool. Glad to see you are becoming a progressive. I look forward to your support of other progressive causes, like a steeply progressive federal [and state] income tax.
Unless you are being a hypocrite?
Fascist one… You got that progressive idea from PuddyPost#10?
NOPE you DOPE! Why don’t you offer to open your wallet and bank account and pay big time?
@14. I could give everything I have and it wouldn’t be a drop in the bucket. It wouldn’t change the fact that the top 1% have enough and it’s time to tax them for the excess. Once they have enough for food, retirement, and health care insurance, and college for the kids and a paid for home, and even a vacation home and the ability to take a couple of vacations a year, tax 80% of the over and above.
Extreme income inequality is bad for America, just like slavery was bad for America, regardless of how much the slave owners liked it.
@15. And if you don’t like that plan, what do you propose that is better?
As a member of the 1%, I say this: Fuck you.
@17 As a tiny cog in a gigantic wheel, you don’t have any say about anything, anymore than us 99%ers do. Only members of the .00001% get a say.
Crisis-tunity!
Maybe its time to stop funding the educational system through local land taxes, and instead through state-wide land taxes?
I’ve heard a lot of folks talk about how that would be much more fair. Struggling regions would get cash infusions directly from well-to-do areas, and we wouldn’t need a new kind of tax (income versus land) to accomplish it.