Adele Ferguson - Williams of EFF predicts day of reckoning for state

BUSINESS LEADERS who gathered in Bremerton to hear one of the sharpest financial analysts around give them the lowdown on the state of their state, found no reason to cheer by the time he got through.

This was just prior to the election which is also when this was written, so by now things could be worse, depending on how it came out. It’s bad enough as it is.

The speaker was Bob Williams of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank that keeps an eye on who’s doing what in government to make sure it’s according to law. I met Bob during his 10 years in the state House where he was the brains of the Republican budget committee. When I have a question about taxing and finance, I go to him.

We, he told the crowd, are at a day of reckoning. “In 2009 and 2010, Gov. Gregoire and Democratic legislative leaders crafted financially irresponsible budgets. They postponed necessary spending reductions, perhaps hoping for a miracle of sorts.”

BUT MOST of them seem unaware of the mess we’re in and the consequences of what they have done, said Williams. “Rather than fundamentally reshaping government to reflect declining state revenues for some time to come, legislators are relying on accounting gimmicks, one-time funds, underfunding pensions and federal stimulus money to balance state budgets. In the process, they are artificially propping up a higher level of spending that can’t be supported by the economy in the near to medium future.”

“The No. I issue in the state is jobs,” said Williams. “The No. 2 issue is jobs. The No. 3 issue is jobs.”

In July, he said, the governor announced she had cut $11.8 billion out of a $32 billion budget in the past two years when in fact, total state spending increased $4.2 billion. It depends on what you mean by cuts. Say a state director got $50 million in the prior budget and now be wants $75 million. The guv et al agree to $55 million and count the ungranted $10 million as a cut. That’s not a cut in spending, just a cut in the request.

GREGOIRE and the Legislature also treated their built in voting bloc, the state employees, with kid gloves so their salaries and benefits are unsustainable, said Williams. From 2005 to 2009, they received 25.4 percent increase in salaries and a 50.5 percent increase in benefits. Rather than requiring them to pay more than 12 percent of their health care premiums, the governor and lawmakers added $82 per month to the state’s contribution of $768 per employee per month.

The Washington Round Table determined that what state employees paid nationwide for family health care coverage was nearly four times that of our state employees. Remember Gov. Gregoire’s 2003 promise to the Washington State Labor Council that “You and labor will always have a voice in every decision I make?”

The state’s pension system lost $16 billion in the stock market in the past two years. The Pew Center criticized Washington state for contributing just 37 percent of what the pension system needed over the preceding five years. Only one other state made less effort to keep its pensions whole.

Williams offered three conclusions: 1. The governor and majority leaders don’t get it 2. They don’t understand taxpayers are on the hook for contractual obligations made. 3. They get it but prefer to spend even if it means increases in taxes and fees to pay.

“Voters,” he said. “will have to decide what works for them.”

By now, they’ve done that.

(Adele Ferguson can be reached at P.O. Box 69, Hansville, Wa., 98340.)