Hello Readers,

Only 15 days remain until the end of the regular legislative session in Olympia.  A wide range of policy issues are being discussed and negotiated as House bills are now over in the Senate and vice versa.  Much of the legislature's attention is now turned to fiscal matters.

The recent revenue forecast came in, and, as expected, was lower than previous ones.  What this means is that revenue growth (and therefore economic activity) is growing more slowly than the previous quarters.  This was not unexpected.  This also means that what some have been saying about state spending is coming true.  State spending must be reined in.  However, it does not mean "cuts" to education, health care, social services and the environment.  It just means that those who feed off the public trough will have to ameliorate their demands for our tax money.

The various unions, whether it is public employees, WEA, SEIU or the Washington State Labor Council, however, have no intention of doing so.  Their incessant whining for more regulation, more money, more collective bargaining are pushing the state toward a crisis.  More disappointing is the lack of backbone by many legislators to stand up to them.  But this is an election year and the elected officials, the majority party in particular, depend on union political contributions and union members to walk precincts for them so it is doubtful that there will be any real effort to be prudent, unless citizens who are more concerned about fiscal restraint than government spending communicate to their legislators.

A prime example of this was seen in the budget that passed the House of Representatives last week.  The House budget included a COLA for teachers, per I-732 that was passed a few years back.  No argument there.  Teachers have a tough job dealing with a myriad of student issues, school district bureaucracy, lack of parental support and in some cases aged facilities.  However, the teachers' union, the WEA, has supported rolling back the WASL as a graduation requirement, fought against higher academic standards, questioned the need for a third year math credit and been lukewarm toward recruiting more math and science teachers. 

Yet, their clamoring for more and more resulted in an additional salary increase over and above their COLA to the tune of $35 million, just at the time that everyone was preaching fiscal restraint.  Plus, there was no accountability for this money.  Nothing requiring better student performance, nothing to move ineffective teachers into different professions, nothing to get more qualified math and science teachers.  Just more of your money being thrown at them to get the WEA's political support.

The lesson the legislature is basically telling everyone is that whining works (as long as you can fund their campaigns).

Another example is $1.2 million that is in both the House and Senate budget for a so-called "health care work group".  This expenditure amounts to the funding of a union political campaign to push for a single payer health care system.  While the idea of a single payer system, public or private, ought to be discussed, along with numerous other options for delivering health care, it is completely inappropriate for this discussion to be funded by taxpayers.  The health care committees of the House and Senate can study these issues at any time, at any place around the state to engage the public on health care issues. 

This also gives those who have been bashing Association Health Plans a publicly funded forum to do so.  The unions and others should use their own money to promote their costly ideas, not your money.  The WTIA has written Speaker Frank Chopp and other key legislators opposing this bad idea.

If you want to read the supplemental operating budget passed by the House, check here:  http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=2687 and then click on "Engrossed Substitute".  It can be pretty dry reading but you will get a feel for how the state spends your money.  The underlined language is what is being added and the crossed out language is what is being deleted.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee is voting on its version as this is being written.  Check this link for details on their spending priorities:  http://leap.leg.wa.gov/leap/budget/detail/2008/so2008p.asp  There are several documents you can review there.

The Washington Technology Industry Assocation is your Olympia watchdog on policy and fiscal issues.  We fight for you, our members, who are the ones creating family wage jobs and helping our great state remain a leader in the global economy.  Please support us by joining and by making a contribution to our political action committee so we can counter the voices of those who would bankrupt our state.  Please contact me at lmcmurran@washingtontechnology.org for additional information.  Thank you.