{"id":17941,"date":"2011-11-28T22:26:50","date_gmt":"2011-11-29T06:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/?p=17941"},"modified":"2011-11-29T11:21:02","modified_gmt":"2011-11-29T19:21:02","slug":"washington-state-budget-woes-wheres-the-beef","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/28\/washington-state-budget-woes-wheres-the-beef\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington State Budget Woes: Where’s the Beef?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is fairly off-topic (although we have covered this subject occasionally in the past<\/a>), but with all the teeth-gnashing I’ve been reading about lately regarding the latest round of supposedly major cuts required to keep state spending in line with revenues, I thought it might be interesting to look at a couple of charts on the subject.<\/p>\n

Here’s an example of the rhetoric floating around out there regarding the latest round of budget tightening, with the governor making the case for a “temporary” sales tax increase:<\/p>\n

Seattle Times, November 21: Gregoire proposes half-cent sales-tax increase<\/a><\/p>\n

Gregoire wants lawmakers to put a referendum on the March ballot asking for a temporary half-penny boost in the sales tax, which would bring in nearly $500 million a year. The tax would expire after three years and largely would go toward education, with smaller amounts for public safety and social services.<\/p>\n

The governor’s proposal came after she outlined more than 160 proposed budget cuts to fill the gap. The cuts included eliminating state-subsidized health insurance for the working poor; reducing the K-12 school year by four days; and allowing early release of prisoners who are at low to moderate risk of reoffending.<\/p>\n

Some reductions would be rescinded if the tax increase is approved.<\/p>\n

“I have seen the ramifications of the cuts,” Gregoire said. “I can’t live with it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Today, protesters descended on the state Capitol in Olympia<\/a> to protest these allegedly intolerable cuts.<\/p>\n

Here’s a look at Washington’s total budgeted spending for each biennium, with the budget hole that everyone is making a big deal about overlaid in green:<\/p>\n

\"Washington<\/a><\/p>\n

When the total budget is $74 billion, cutting $2 billion doesn’t seem like quite as big of a deal. We’re talking about 2.7% of the budget. It also seems worth noting that even with these annual cuts we keep hearing about, the total budget has still managed to grow 5.2% since the 2007-2009 biennium.<\/p>\n

Of course, straight dollars don’t quite tell the whole story, so here’s a chart in which I’ve indexed total state spending to 100 in the 1999-2001 biennium, and plotted it alongside an index of population, multiplied by the growth in national CPI (less shelter):<\/p>\n

\"Washington<\/a><\/p>\n

State spending has managed to grow a total of 61.7% over the last twelve years (after<\/em> the $2B in cuts), vs. a total growth of 55.5% for population times inflation. So I can’t help but wonder… where exactly is the pressing need to increase state taxes or cut vital services?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is fairly off-topic (although we have covered this subject occasionally in the past), but with all the teeth-gnashing I’ve been reading about lately regarding the latest round of supposedly major cuts required to keep state spending in line with revenues, I thought it might be interesting to look at a couple of charts on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[199,198],"tags":[823,185,399,171],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-17941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","category-news","tag-budget","tag-gregoire","tag-politics","tag-tax-revenues"],"yoast_head":"\nWashington State Budget Woes: Where's the Beef? 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