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We Can Do Better
By Reps. Jay Rodne and Glenn Anderson
The 2008 legislative
session ended on March 13. With the many challenges facing our state in
transportation, education and health care, we were hopeful to make
progress on these and other issues this year.
While some minor good things were accomplished, the big issues were left
unaddressed. Indeed, they were deliberately avoided. The theme of the
session was reflected by House Democrat Majority Leader Rep. Lynn
Kessler who recently said, “If you take too many bold steps, you’ll no
longer be in the majority.”
Democrats hold a two-to-one supermajority in the state House and Senate,
not to mention the governor’s office. We think this requires the
majority party to embrace the tough decisions necessary to govern – not
just to seek re-election for the sake of being in power.
As members of the minority party, we believe it is our responsibility to
support good ideas and draw attention to actions that play fast and
loose with the facts and taxpayer dollars.
Our deepest concern is the runaway state spending that has been defined
by special interest group demands, not tough decisions that solve
problems and provide value to taxpayers. Since 2004, state spending has
increased by $8.7 billion, which is a 34 percent increase – the largest
in state history. The budget passed this session added another $291
million in new spending. The rate of growth of state spending (over 16
percent) is now more than double the rate of growth of state revenue
(over 7 percent).
Nonpartisan staff estimates show a budget deficit of $2.4 billion next
year. This figure does not include $800 million mandated by a recent
court decision to enhance school employee salaries, or $450 million of
new unfunded low-income social service programs that will require
funding next year.
All this adds up to a $3.75 billion deficit on day one of the 2009
legislative session. This imbalance can only be resolved by a massive 10
percent general tax increase, draconian spending cuts, or a combination
of both.
Addressing the transportation challenges facing us was also contentious,
especially the replacement of the State Route 520 bridge. Due to rapid
cost inflation of construction materials since the 9.5-cent gas tax
increase in 2005, the state transportation budget now faces an almost $2
billion deficit.
Due to this funding shortfall, Governor Gregoire proposed and the
majority party supported a revised six-lane bridge design that would
provide essentially no new capacity. This design would be partially
funded by pre-construction tolling on the existing 520 bridge.
Tolling will be necessary to maintain our transportation infrastructure
and we support a reasonable tolling framework. However, we must have
assurances that the funds raised by tolls will be used to expand
capacity and improve the roadways. Unfortunately, our attempts to put
safeguards in place to ensure tolling revenues would not be diverted to
government programs unrelated to transportation were rejected by the
majority.
The bright spot this session was the progress made to improve the
state’s math instruction for our children. The fact is less than 50
percent of high school seniors in Washington have an 8th grade
proficiency in math. Due to this meltdown in math instruction, the
governor and Legislature suspended the math proficiency test as a
requirement for high school graduation until 2013. We are the only state
in the nation that has had to take such an action. We are optimistic
about getting math instruction back on track because we know it’s
essential to our children’s future opportunities.
We have a lot of optimism in our state, but we believe that with bold
leadership and a vision for the future the Legislature can do better to
address the defining issues our day.
Rep. Glenn Anderson (R-Fall City) and Rep. Jay Rodne (R-North Bend)
represent the 5th Legislative District. Rep. Anderson serves on the
Appropriations, K-12 Policy and Higher Education committees. Rep. Rodne
serves on the Transportation, Judiciary and Financial Services &
Consumer Protection committees.
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For more information, contact:
Bobbi Cussins, Public
Information Officer - (360) 786-7252
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