Fiscal responsibility is common sense.  Government should not punish taxpayers to pay for government’s excessive spending.  When we agree to a long term obligation, me have to make sure we have the money when the money is due.  All of this is behavior expected of any mature adult, but the state government has not held itself to the same standard!

Beyond the common sense of not spending money we don’t have, the state government also needs to budget in a way that doesn’t hurt the economy.  When state government sets its tax and spending level, it needs to consider the total tax burden on our citizens from State, Federal and local governments.  And we don’t want to set the tax burden so high that we discourage growth or make Washington less competitive than other states.

It comes back to how we manage our own finances.  Spend what you have.  Not what we don’t have!  And when we set up our own budgets at home, we consider long term obligations such as mortgage payments and our children’s education.  We expect the state to do the same thing.  But they aren’t.

During the six short years my opponent has been in office the budget has increased from $ 53.5 Billion in 2003/2005 to $72.7 Billion in 2009/2011.  That’s an astonishing increase in spending, a whopping 36%.  Meanwhile, our state population has increased by only 9%, and K-12 enrollments have increased less than 2%.

During this same period the state legislature has unfunded the Public Employee Retirement Plan and the Teachers Retirement plan an additional $ 3 Billion.  That brings the total amount of the legislatures underfunding of pension funds to $7 Billion.  In addition we just faced a shortfall last year of $ 2.8 Billion, and we paid for it with some cuts, some stimulus dollars from the federal government, and the largest tax increase in the Washington’s history.  We are now facing a $3 Billion to $5 Billion shortfall in our current budget cycle and forecast an $8 Billion shortfall in our next budget cycle.  If Washington’s finances were a patient in a hospital, that patient would be said to be in critical condition.

Solution

• State spending must be restructured and brought under control.  The people of Washington need to decide how much government they want, what they can afford and eventually how they want to pay for it.

• Washington needs a “pay as you go” provision that will identify and commit adequate funds to cover spending over program life as part of the authorization and approval cycle of all spending legislation.

• Long term obligations, such as, our Public Employee’s and Teachers retirement obligations, must be part of each budget and fully funded. Currently we have a funding obligation to our Public Employees and Teachers that is past due, $7 Billion in unfunded obligations.  That obligation should be scheduled over a reasonable period of time to bring it current.

• A Priority of Government approach should be Washington’s compass on spending, identifying what areas are most important to the people of Washington.  Education and long term obligations should be ranked as priority 1 and priority 2.

• Stop charging sales tax on state transportation projects and transferring 10% of the transportation budget to the general fund.