Mukilteo, Wa – Early this afternoon Ed Borey officially filed as a republican candidate for State Representative, 21st District, position 1.  Borey, a career businessman from Mukilteo, wants to put his expertise to work to represent the citizens of the 21st district.  Says Borey,  “Washington State is facing the greatest financial crisis in our lifetime, we need the representation that understands that and will stop spending and making commitments beyond our means.”

MUKILTEO, WA – Desiring to bring fiscal responsibility to Washington State’s budget, 21st District State House candidate, Ed Borey, sent a letter to Governor Gregoire late last week offering suggestions on how to streamline government. Borey’s letter is attached. 

“Governor Gregoire and the state legislature could not have selected a worse time to raise business taxes,” Borey said. “Our economy is down, credit to small business is extremely tight, and the environment is uncertain. What are the people we have sent to Olympia doing about this? Making things worse!”

Borey is a candidate for State Representative, Position 1, in the 21st District.  Borey spent a career managing distressed companies back to fiscal responsibility. As the former CEO of WatchGuard and other Puget Sound area businesses, Borey has experienced first hand what a plan, discipline, hard decisions, and good people can do to achieve financial stability and success.

“The state can only do three things to create jobs: be fiscally responsible, be business friendly, and have a great education system. We are doing none of them and wondering why businesses are not adding workers, or are relocating out of our state,” Borey stated. “Raising taxes to balance the budget without taking long term actions to control spending is a real disservice to our citizens. It’s a short term economic band-aid, at best, and it lacks any semblance of real leadership!”

Borey cites use of federal stimulus money to plug budgetary holes over the past year and half, without making the tough choices to solve long-term problems. Borey has served as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Financial Officer for multiple international businesses. Borey has Masters degrees in both Public Administration and Business Administration.

“At some point, streamlining government becomes both a priority and a requirement,” Borey remarked. “Every day we delay addressing the fundamental issues of spending translate to additional dollars we need to either raise or cut. The budget process is starting. Now is the time for the governor to show real leadership by getting out in front of the state’s fiscal problem so that everybody wins. That’s precisely why I have offered solutions and ideas to Governor Gregoire.”

Washington State is constitutionally mandated to balance the budget every biennium.

3. Review every major program, determine those that are necessary, and end those that are not;

4. Review every major program, identify opportunities for fraud and abuse, and take corrective action; and,

5. Review major agencies, departments and programs to determine activities most appropriately privatized, and privatize them.

Our state employees are one of the great assets we have in a restructuring strategy. They too are concerned citizens. They know what works and what doesn’t; what is necessary and what isn’t. For all of us, this is an opportunity to create a better, more effective state government.

Washington State government has a twofold fiscal issue. First, the size and trajectory of state spending far surpasses that of state tax revenue. Washington’s government spending has grown by 27 % since 2005. However, population growth in Washington State during the same period was only 7%. K-12 enrollments only grew 1 %, personal income only grew at 7 %, while state tax revenue only grew at 12%. Current state spending levels are unwarranted and unsustainable.

Second, growth in spending and increases in state employees are increasing across the board. We are spending $13 billion more each biennium than we did a few years ago.  Additional spending includes $5 billion for all human services, $4 billion in K-12 education and $1 billion in government operations.

Our primary goal in economic recovery should be the creation of private sector jobs.  Spending beyond sustainable levels, and raising taxes to try and keep up, are a drag on economic recovery. This creates an environment of uncertainty for our businesses and stifles job creation.

We are quickly reaching the point in which the citizens of Washington State will need to decide how much government they want, how much government they can afford, and how they are willing to pay for it. Those decisions should be made within the context of an effective and lean state government. Today that is not the case.

When I look at this professionally, I know that we have the opportunity to save billions of dollars while improving the delivery of services our citizens demand. There are professional organizations that could help restructure state government. Within Washington State there are many in the private sector, spanning all political persuasions that could be called upon to help. This is not a question of Democrat, Republican or Independent. It is a question of doing what’s right for the citizens of our state.

I remain at your service if I can do anything further to help address this fiscal crisis.

Best regards

Ed Borey

Candidate for State Representative, District 21, position 1

I receive 2 to 3 newspapers a day and often have to collect them to read later. Recently, I was reading through a week or so of newspapers.  As I was reading I was confronted with high unemployment, taxes increases, discussion of an income tax, suspension of I-960 and the will of the people, murder and mayhem.  Lets face it the news over the past two years has been mostly bad.

Then all of a sudden there was a flash of brilliance. Reported in the February 23 Everett Herald is an article by Eric Stevick about an improvement in the Everett and Mill Creek high school graduation rates from 61% to 90%. 

As a CEO I appreciate the drive for excellence and what it takes to achieve it!  Thank you to all the teachers, administrators, principles and school board members that made that a reality.  Job well done!  It is a great service to your school districts, your state and your community; but, most of all to your students.