It’s not just Washington state that is facing huge budget shortfalls.
State governments are forecasting more than $100 billion in budget gaps over the next two fiscal years, according to a new report from an association of state governments.
Twenty states have already cut $7.6 billion from their budgets for fiscal 2009, and 30 states have identified additional shortfalls totaling more than $30 billion, according to a report by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) to be released at 11 a.m. Monday.
Twenty-five states also have identified shortfalls of $60 billion for fiscal 2010, according to the report provided to the Wall Street Journal. Based upon previous budget actions and a continuing downturn, the NCSL projects cumulative budget gaps of more than $140 billion for the next two financial years.
Some of the states facing serious budget challenges include Minnesota, California and Florida. Astute observers will notice something those three states all have in common. (Insert “Final Jeopardy” music here.)
That’s right, they all have Republican governors. The proper response, of course, is: so what?
The global economic crisis was caused in large part by a corrupt, nearly unregulated financial sector that made foolish decisions, and it happened during a Republican administration in Washington, D.C. To blame any governor for the challenges now facing the states is a bit like blaming a homeowner for the arsonist that just torched their house, because they should have known someone might pour a five gallon can of gasoline all over and toss in a lit match.
Luckily, we have a president-elect who seems interested in helping all the states and all the citizens, instead of looking the other way while Grandma Millie takes it in the shins.
Bad Try Jon===NO SALE
The average shortfall based on your own numbers is $1 BILLION in 2009 and $2.4 BILLION in 2010 or a total of $3.4 BILLION average. If you take out California, it is much lower and the fact is at $6 BILLION Budget Gap (Gregoire’s number) or even use $5.1 BILLION, Washington is still far above the average.
WHY?? Because Gregoire increased spending the past 4 years by $8 BILLION in the face of a recession even while admitting it wasn’t sustainable. Sheer Lunacy.
Had Rossi been elected Governor in 2004, we would not be facing this serious of a dilemma. Why?? Because he would have frozen hiring and raises long ago.
The right thing to do now is to ROLLBACK Salary’s & Benefits to the 2001 Level….today. Gregoire has been literally paralyzed the past 2 years….despite seeing the writing on the wall. Gary Locke’s very own former Budget Director called Gregoire’s feeble efforts to date…INSIGNIFICANT. Gregoire’s actions like 1% across the Board cuts, hiring & travel freezes may have reduced costs by $100 million or so. Then she lied with NO DETAILS about cutting the deficit in half.
The chickens have come home to roost. The Budget gap can only be closed 3 ways….
Tax Increase
Spending Cuts
Combo of the above.
Gregoire campaigned on NO NEW TAXES.
I think we should honor her pledge and Vote HELL NO on any Tax Increase the Legislature dreams up and puts on the Ballot.
PS–Remember all the Gas Tax project promises??
Gregoire has already admitted she cannot deliver. Why trust these assholes and a bloated bureaucracy with more of our hard-earned money in a recession???
Things might have been….er, different with Rossi. Judging from his one foray into creating a state budget, he’s not only incompetent, but so arrogant that he’s unable to accept advice from anybody else.
I listened to him on the stump and in the debates, and he talked a lot about how Gregoire supposedly screwed everything up, but when pressed about what he’d do differently, he offered nothing specific–just a flood of platitudes about “working across the aisle”, “running government like a business” (hmmm…like all those bankers did, maybe?) and other such rhetorical confetti.
AF–
I already told you what he would have done differently…frozen hiring and salary increases. That was a HUGE part of Gregoire’s $8 BILLION of increased spending.
He would have also proposed rolling back costly Legislation related to GMA that has crushed rural county budgets.
It really isn’t that complicated AF. You just don’t like the “smaller government” solution, do you?!
@1 “more of our hard-earned money”
And just why would a Montana rancher/investor/glock-toting survivallist give a shit? Oh, that’s right, you made all that shit up.
Cynical is insisting that Gregoire run the government as if she were Rossi. He seems to forget that Rossi lost the election.
His insistance that we “roll back spending to 2001 levels ” is ludicrous. In the first place, the Governor can’t roll back prices to 2001 levels at the same time. Secondly, there’s a lot more demand for state services in 2008 than there was in 2001 (thanks to Bush & Co. and their Repubican Economic Plan). Finally, anybody who wants to go back and repeat the economic results of 2001~2008 in this country should have his head examined.
By the way, it’s official – the U.S. has been in a rescession for the better part of a year.
U.S. Officially In Rescession for Last Year
Not that this is really a surprise to us, despite the Bush administration’s clumsy attempts to cook the books to make it look otherwise (“adjusting” GDP numbers to the point that in the course of last summer’s financial meltdown, the Commerce Dept. “assumed” that financial services industry was posting a double-digit RISE in profitability).
rhp–
I’m not “insisting”…..just don’t know how she can help not with her NO NEW TAXES Pledge.
That was Gregoire’s committment,…not mine.
It means she has left herself only one choice…cut State Government spending to balance the Budget.
Will Gregoire renege on her campaign pledge?
probably….but hopefully not.
Her cowards way out is to stand silent while the Legislature puts something on the ballot. If Gregoire had an ounce of integrity, when that Massive Tax Increase Ballot Initiative comes out, Gregoire would PUBLICLY oppose it.
Oh and Steve the Village Idiot–
I pay well over $25,000 in Washington State Property Taxes. How much do you pay?
Ever heard of taxation without representation?
Even though you are like a shedboy, your landlord still pays taxes on your shed & outhouse….which should be passed thru to you, all $36.18 of them.
6. rhp6033 spews:
So why did Gregoire wait so long to take even feeble action??
5. rhp6033 spews:
Therein lies the problem rhp…everyone wants free shit again.
Get back to the basics.
Eliminate bureaucracy’s and get money to Public Safety & Infrastructure that is cost justified FIRST & FOREMOST!
The global economic crisis was caused in large part by a corrupt, nearly unregulated financial sector that made foolish decisions, and it happened during a Republican administration in Washington, D.C. To blame any governor for the challenges now facing the states is a bit like blaming a homeowner for the arsonist that just torched their house, because they should have known someone might pour a five gallon can of gasoline all over and toss in a lit match.
—————–
It happened during a Republican administration, but as has been documented and commented on many times, including in HA (are you reading?), there were a lot of contributors from both parties . . . including some of Obama’s recent appointees.
Regarding this:
“To blame any governor for the challenges now facing the states is a bit like blaming a homeowner for the arsonist that just torched their house”
your analogy is way off. Alarms for the housing and credit markets were being sounded at least far back as 2004, but as Paul Krugman recently noted, as long as everyone was enjoying the party nobody took the alarms seriously. That includes government officials at all levels, including those of this state. Indeed, state officials were directly aware of the risky lending practices taking place in this state, and even took their complaints to the Federal level to no avail. The point is, governments, including ours, ignored the growing crescendo of alarms over the last four years and budgeted based on rosy economic scenarios. We can attach blame for the source of the problem elsewhere, but the failure to heed the growing problem rests squarely on the shoulders of state government leaders. This did not just sneak up on them.
Rolling back wages for all state employees to 2001 levels will result in the most competent of those employees leaving to take other jobs elsewhere. That will leave the state with employees who simply can’t get jobs elsewhere, the less competent ones.
As a wise businessman once said to me, “If you pay your employees the average wage you get average employees. If you pay them below the average wage, you get below average work from them. Wages aren’t the place to save money. Concentrate on getting the best employees available, and pay them what they’re worth”.
Of course, if your intent is to end up with below-average employees who don’t do the job well and thereby prove that goverment is “incompetent”, then I guess that’s your choice. It’s not mine. The last eight years have shown the difference between having competent and incompent government employees at the highest levels of government, I don’t want to multiply that effect on the state level.
I was watching CNBC today as Obama announced his Cabinet appointments. It was hysterical because the more Obama talked, the more the DOW dropped. Now down 450 points.
Smart money got out last Friday!!
Not a good idea to stay in the market over the weekend these days.
Could be some more great bargains today though!
Why buy cheap shit that wears out & is eventually worth zero, when you can bargain shop on Wall Street with that money and make money!
11. rhp6033 spews:
Heard that old, tired argument for YEARS!
I say, if they can do better in the Private Sector, go for it! Many do anyway rhp…as if they are real producers they get sick of the incompetence & leave. I know plenty of “former” state government workers who left because of professional pride than merely pay.
State Employees continue to talk about merely Salary’s. They conveniently fail to discuss paid benefits (Health & Dental Insurance, Employers FICA, Pension etc.) and the most valuable of all PAID TIME-OFF!! Sick leave, holidays & vacations.
Hey rhp, here is some valuable insight:
When self-employed folks don’t work, they don’t get paid!! Imagine that!
There is a serious disconnect between State Employees and taxpayers that needs to be re-connected. They are PUBLIC SERVANTS….not career State Workers. They should only be allowed to work 15 years in State Government and then move on. They get stale and hang on for the last 5 years for their beloved PENSION!
Even Rog Rabbit admitted that was his motivation.
Who is working for whom?
7 “I pay well over $25,000 in Washington State Property Taxes.”
Good!
Cynical: Where are the specific numbers that would back your claim that pay raises for state employees and new hires account for the $5 billion shortfall for the following two years?
Your conclusion seems preposterous.
Cynical: You can not ‘punish’ your way out of a recession.
You are always looking for the ‘STERN FATHER’ solution to every problem — with the hardworking citizens as the errant children — instead of the true malefactors: Big business and big finance.
@14 “Good!”
Imaginary taxes on his imaginary properties. A few months ago he was telling how he’d sold them all. The stupid fuck simply can’t keep his lies straight. He must have one fucked up life to have to make up all this shit.
Lucy @16:
This from the same person that said punish the rich about 4 HA blog posts ago.
woohoo.
Cynical @ 13: I’ve worked in private industry since I was sixteen, with a brief exception for a work-study program as a college student (a little over a year). I was self-employed for almost seven of those years. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve had side businesses while I’ve been employed, I currently operate a website on the side which generates a modest amount of money. So I’m well aware of the pressures facing the self-employed.
I currently could be making considerably more money if I were off on my own, but I couldn’t get insurance for myself and my wife. Once you are on the far side of 50 and have had some health issues, private insurance sometimes becomes unafordable at any cost. As part of a group plan where I work, my wife and I can continue to be insured at a reasonable cost.
As for government employees, you seem to want them to be your “house servants” on a “temp basis”. I would prefer competent, professional managers of the public basis.
If you want to see the difference, look at what happened to the Katrina response after FEMA was gutted by the Bush administration. The people who knew how to get the job done left between 2002~2004 after it was clear that their concerns were being ignored and that the agency was going to become nothing more than a straw man through which private contracts would be issued. The private contractors weren’t professional disaster relief experts, they were merely companies with political connections who planned to employ temporary workers and rent equipment as need (IF it was available) and then reap some HUGE profits by cutting back on the level of service provided the disaster victims. It didn’t work too well – trucks loaded with melting ice were still circling Georgia and Alabama weeks after the disaster hit, unsure of where to deliver it.
I hate to admit it, but I take great pleasure in NOT reading any Mr Cynical posts anymore. He will not consider that he might be wrong when given facts and reason that I enjoy the board so much more by NOT reading him.
re 18: The Piper’s mind is, by his own description, large enough to tolerate inconsistencies. So is mine.
Please explain how making the rich pay their fair share of taxes is a ‘punishment’ to them?
rhp–
How many State Employees have you interacted with over the years?? Do you really truly believe the majority of these people could do better in the PRIVATE sector when you consider their Salary, ALL Benefits, ALL paid time-off incl. Sick Leave, Holidays, Vacation????
Do you honestly believe that rhp???
I don’t…not for a second.
My evidence is the number of people who want government jobs….state & local.
Obviously there are exceptions to the rule……..but I think QUALITY for the dollars paid is definitely the exception.
If you are right rhp, they should be HAPPY to be laid off!! We are doing them a favor so they can get more COMPENSATION for their considerable skills!
C’mon rhp…it’s a cesspool at the state. I met a guy years ago…brilliant guy with great private experience who went in to reform L&I. He knew what it took! They chewed him up with Union BS protecting the many losers employed and he quit after 2 years in disgust. It was unbelievably bad rhp.
Let’s thin the herd and cleanse the genepool. It’s been way too incestuous for decades. Don’t worry about throwing out a couple good employees with every 100 you send packing.
@22 “I met a guy years ago…”
Good grief, Cynical. So what?
Hey, Cynical…
My wife and I both used to be state employees.
We worked our butts off.
Go blow yourself.
Funny how people carry their prejudices with them. They see a state employee on the job, and they complain that they don’t seem to be working hard enough for their taste because they aren’t sweating yet. Then they walk into a private retail shop and see twenty sales people are standing around, waiting for a customer to eventually ask them a question, but not doing much else, and they rave about how efficient and harder-working private industry is.
Most of the time, they just like it if people grovel to them, as people in sales in private industry will do from time-to-time. But state employees aren’t supposed to grovel, they are supposed to do their jobs efficiently and without prejudice.
As for pay, I’ve found that after working on the board of my church, and interesting dynamic emerges. People want their pastor to be paid a little more than they get paid. Not a lot more, just a little more. So people who make $30K a year figure a pastor who makes $50K a year is grossly overpaid, whereas a person who makes $120K a year thinks the pastor is being paid a pauper’s sum, and deserves an immediate raise.
With respect to state employees, the dynamic is reversed. Because people like Cynical figure that the employee is “their employee”, the should get paid less than he does, just to keep the relationship in perspective. So if Cynical is thinking an average state employee is overpaid, then that probably says something about his income level, too.
Kind of like the old Russian proverb:
Cynical is looking at the state employee’s wages like it’s the proverbial Russian cow, and he’s jealous. Why should they deserve a cow? He ASSUMES that they are all lazy, wheras he is hard-working, and the fact that “his” taxes help to pay for them just sticks under his skin. He could get a cow too, but he’d prefer to kill the employee’s cow.
Actually rhp, I look at the State Employees entire COMPENSATION PACKAGE…..not just the wages. It’s the total PACKAGE that offends me.
ArtFart–
Admitting you were a former State Employee was unnecessary. Your comments have made that abundantly clear. So are many of the other HA Posters.
Work your butts off??
Cry me a river AF…2 State Pensions.
Rough life.
You are clueless about working your butt off when you are guaranteed a job & paycheck.
Your comment shows how out of touch you are with the real business world which generated the revenue to pay your salary, benefits, time-off and now, your Pension.
I have just been taxed out of my Camano Island home, in the last three years, and I can’t even sell it because no one is buying that overevaluated Island County assessor’s property. I wonder how he is going to claim those high valuses when Shit ain’t selling?
Talk about an out of F’n control assessor, ask anyone in Island County!
They turned down all four property tax proposals on the last ballot, including Fire and Protection.
In King County the Port piled on an extra 11%, King County added hundreds for goddamn People ferries, as if people can’t ride on the empty Big ferries?
Get a clue folks, enough is enough!
@12
@11
Cyn, hates government and there is nothing anyone can do to change that. No matter what happens he will always complain. I guess he’s what a right-wing anarchist would look like.
‘Oh and, just for the record I’ve never been a state employee. I’m currently working for a non-profit where I occasionally interact with state employees who are smart and hardworking.
30. Michael spews:
Working for a Non-profit??
The Non-Profit part is probably BECAUSE you are working there! Profits are evil, right?
30. Michael spews:
Working for a Non-profit??
The Non-Profit part is probably BECAUSE you are working there! Profits are evil, right?
Rhp laid it out well. Right-wing Used car salesmen like Mr. Cynical want a government whose services are outsourced to politically well-connected thieves.
This is rampant throughout the federal government. I heard a piece on NPR the other day where they were talking about outsourcing even decision-making. It’s too weird.