The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

About four years ago, when I was publisher of the Blue Mountain News, I interviewed State Representative Terry Nealey as he was preparing to start the 2011 legislative session. The economy was in the dumps then, and the state government was facing a reduction of more than $1 billion in tax revenues compared to the year before, along with a huge budget deficit.

Here’s what Nealey had to say about that in December 2010:

“In 2007 the state had a $2 billion surplus, and the Democrats passed a bunch of new programs that used that up. I know no one could have predicted the extent of the economic collapse we’ve had, but I still felt that was very irresponsible.”

The legislature ended up cutting more than $4 billion in spending in the new two-year budget that session.

Could we be entering that cycle again? Washington’s economy in 2014 was very strong. As a result, the state’s economic forecast for 2015 predicts that tax revenues will be up more than $3 billion over last year.

So what is Governor Jay Inslee doing? He’s asking for several billion in additional taxes to fund a bunch of new programs, or, as he calls them, “program enhancements.”

Here’s what Nealey had to say to that in a press release in December 2014 (which we quoted in our story on Nealey in this issue):

“I believe we need to enter this legislative session with the goal of balancing the state budget within existing tax collections.”

Nealey said that additional revenues may be needed, but I hope the legislature will resist.

The economy won’t stay this strong forever. Instead of launching a bunch of “program enhancements” that will probably have to be “unenhanced” the next time the economy hits the skids, why not keep the lid on spending now, while revenues are strong?

The legislature is facing a lot of pressure to increase education spending, and some of that is needed. But with already growing revenues, there’s no reason for the state not to live within its means.

This is the perfect time to jump off the budget rollercoaster.