The lobbyists and legislators I talked to down in Olympia yesterday indicated that there was no way out of the budget crisis—$7 billion? $8 billion—other than raising taxes. (Hell, $10 billion. Wait until those holiday season non-revenues come in.)
Indeed, Senate Democratic leadership met with a group of UW economists last week who told the state senators that Gov. Chris Gregoire’s severe budet cutting approach is the absolute worst solution in times like these.
The academics prepared a handy fact sheet for the legislators titled: “Avoiding a Herbert Hoover Budget for Washington State.”
Under the headline—”Economist Paul Krugman warns that 50 Herbert Hoover budgets are now being written in state capitals and if they go into effect they will undermine attempts to revive the economy”— the U.W. brains leveled Gov. Gregoire’s Dino Rossi-approach warning that: 1) Her billions in cuts could cost more than 50,000 jobs; 2) “targeted, reasonable cuts are appropriate, but massive cuts will accelerate the economic decline while reducing services and damaging programs and institutions;” 3) “Don’t hire construction workers while firing social workers…The most effective stimulus is to refrain from cutting existing jobs and programs;” 4) “Deficit spending is the right response…the state should sell bonds…to cover the shortfall.”
The legislator who showed me the handy recession (depression?) primer had a copy of this book on their desk:
Just 3 months ago, the Queen claimed there was NO budget deficit. And now this? What shitty leadership we have in this state!
When you increase state workers salaries by 25%, what the hell do you expect?
Live with it Governor. YOU FUCKED UP BIG TIME!
I guess they’ve never heard of deficit spending or Keynsian economics.
Dino Rossi earlier this decade was able to close the gap on the budget without raising taxes. How come Gregoire and her gang aren’t up to the task? TO QUOTE CHRISTINE GREGOIRE HERSELF: THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO RAISE TAXES; OR EVEN BE TALKING ABOUT RAISING TAXES. If she agrees to new tax increases, she adds to the idea that her campaign rhetoric was all hot air, does she not? After all, she’s making cuts Dino suggested but she pretended to pan, during the election. I have no respect for the woman. You can’t trust anything that comes out of her mouth.
Apparently the idiots who responded here don’t realize that the budget shortfall in Washington is the result of a national, now spreading worldwide, economic crisis, not of the actions of Gov Gregoire. Get your heads out of the sand so you can help be part of the solution rather than continuing to be part of the problem.
Who are you calling an idiot? Gregoire is talking about cutting tens of thousands of jobs, reducing enrollment in higher education, and cutting our social safety net at a time of rising unemployment. What part of the “solution” am I missing in her proposals?
It’s not a question of the cause of the recession, but about what policy responses could thrust us into a depression.
Gregoire’s policy responses so far suggest that she’s never heard of, or does not believe in, counter-cyclical economics. Calling her out on that is the prerequisite to the creation of some kind of solution.
Just 3 months ago, the Queen claimed there was NO budget deficit. And now this? What shitty leadership we have in this state!
When you increase state workers salaries by 25%, what the hell do you expect?
Live with it Governor. YOU FUCKED UP BIG TIME!