In Mel Brook's movie, "Blazing Saddles," the townspeople become a lynch mob when they see the new sheriff sent by the governor. The sheriff, played by Cleavon Little, draws his pistol, holds it to his own head and tells the crowd to back off or he will shoot himself. The townspeople comply.
The Democrats in Olympia seem to be using the Mel Brooks model for their budgeting operation.
We are seeing the first act. At this point, our representatives have riled up the townspeople by passing a budget that threatens severe cuts in health services, education and other important programs.
Notice that they cut deepest in areas with the most public support.
Reports out of Olympia chronicle the extent of the scorched earth budget: no cost-of-living increases for public employees, up to 8,000 fewer government workers, a slashing of public health care benefits and cuts in education.
Since Gov. Gregoire's reign began in 2004 there has been a 34-percent increase in state spending. More than $300 million in new taxes and fees during the same period did not begin to keep up with the Democrat's spending orgy. The growth in public employment far outstripped the growth in the state's population. The current "scorched earth" budget is $11 billion larger than it was five years ago. There is another significant difference: In 2004, the budget balanced.
Just last summer Gregoire was telling her supporters on the campaign trail that this talk of a $3 billion deficit was just Republican nonsense. With the deficit now at $9 billion, just $3 billion in mismanagement sounds good.
This year Democrats cobbled together a budget based on the use of federal stimulus money, one-time state funds, transfers between the current and the proposed budget and such things as changing assumptions on pension expenses. The artful application of smoke and mirrors allows Olympia to bring us another budget untainted by sound fiscal policy.
Not only did the Legislature pass up the opportunity to implement almost $4 billion in savings identified in past reviews by the state auditor, they cut $29 million from the auditor's budget. That will mean less of those embarrassing reports from Brian Sonntag's office pointing out the state's wasteful ways.
State Sen. Joseph Zarelli, a Republican from Southwest Washington, offered legislation to maintain the current level of enrollment slots at Washington's universities and fund assistance to developmentally disabled youth. He proposed changes that would have maintained more basic health care and general assistance services. However, the Republicans in Olympia are too few in numbers and too poorly led so get an inch of press or a vote on such alternatives.
Now Gregoire is calling for a special session of the Legislature. The governor says she will keep the lawmakers focused on restoring education and perhaps health-care services. That sets us up for the second act in which the Democrats threaten to pull the trigger if we refuse to raise our taxes.
Public-employee unions own a controlling interest in the Washington Democratic Party so we can be sure that this act is choreographed. Prior to the special session, look for ads from those unions demanding that we stave off the sound fiscal policies through yet more taxes and fees.
The 2007-2009 state budget called for spending $14.1 billion on K-12 education. The 2009-2011 budget lists $14.4 billion for that. Yet the politicians say there will be teacher layoffs if we force them to pull the trigger.
Will the public employees really let the Democrats do that if the townspeople do not comply? Unlikely.[[In-content Ad]]
