Washington's lame-duck Democratic Gov. Gary Locke has decided that his legacy to the state will be a $1 billion budget deficit. Most of this overspending can only be characterized as a massive transfer of wealth from the state's taxpayers to government workers:
The biggest single culprit is the public-employee pension funds, which are still hurting from stock-market declines. During the next budget cycle, the state will have to put in an extra $440 million to begin to make up for huge losses on Wall Street.My retirement savings are still hurting from stock-market declines too. So why I should I be penalized even further? Let the government workers depend on defined contribution plans like the rest of us.
The forecast also assumes more than $230 million worth of cost-of-living raises for teachers and state employees. While those are not mandatory, legislators are sure to face intense pressure from public-employee unions.What is most galling about this is that public-employee unions are funded by mandatory dues skimmed off of public-employee salaries. In other words, the unions are financed by taxpayers for the sole purpose of pressuring the legislature to extract even more money from taxpayers.
This sort of monkey business is all the worse because the Democrats possess the governorship and a 52-46 majority in the House of Representatives, while the Republicans hold the Senate by only a narrow 25-24 majority. I'm feeling ever more motivated to work hard this year to help win a firm Republican majority in Olympia.
I think the status quo may continue for some time in the leftist haven that is Washington. Liberal policy failures short of a complete financial meltdown only seem to morph into more spending on these same types of policies. It took just such a complete financial meltdown in California of huge proportions to usher Arnold into the governors office.
I'm more hopeful for California now but Arnold has many enemies. The jury is out over his ability to change the course in California because he has been in office for only a short time. I was pleasantly suprised at the ability of the California voters to turn so quickly to Arnold after so many years of Democratic control. The vote seemed to turn on the voters sudden rage over the financial missmanagement in California and the obvious need to pare the size of government.
I'm glum over the prospects for Washington short of a California style meltdown. Even the obvious folly of Sound Transit and the monorail are moving forward. These financial black holes offer little tangible public benefit. Yet they live.
Posted by: Gary B on January 25, 2004 01:31 PM